by H. E. Bates
But today he did nothing, said nothing.
A boy said: ‘Hic, honc, hac…’
The rest were laughing at him.
‘Less noise! Translate exercise fourteen in your notebooks,’ he croaked out in a nerveless voice.
How often had he said that? What good came of it?
And suddenly he resolved that at the end of the hour he would go to the headmaster and explain as best he could, pleading ill health and saying that he wished to apply for the pension and leave at the end of the term. His hands were shaking. His stomach gnawed and ached. Once he had an operation for cataract and now his eyes were hurting him again. Life seemed deprived of something, of its aim, its precious spirit.
At the end of the lesson he gathered his little blue Virgil, red grammar and notebooks together, and going to the headmaster began explaining in a nervous voice, like a boy dreading reproval:
‘My health is declining…I have not the necessary…what can I do? Perhaps…and the thought of the winter…at my age…’
A week later he handed in his resignation, which was accepted, and at the end of the term he went away.
Now, in the common room sometimes someone who remembers him will casually ask: ‘Does anyone ever hear of old Saul? Where is he? What’s he doing now?’
But there is silence. No one has heard.
A Note on the Author
H. E. Bates was born in 1905 in the shoe-making town of Rushden, Northamptonshire, and educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he worked as a reporter and as a clerk in a leather warehouse.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands, particularly his native Northamptonshire, where he spent many hours wandering the countryside.
His first novel, The Two Sisters (1926) was published by Jonathan Cape when he was just twenty. Many critically acclaimed novels and collections of short stories followed.
During WWII he was commissioned into the RAF solely to write short stories, which were published under the pseudonym "Flying Officer X". His first financial success was Fair Stood the Wind for France (1944), followed by two novels about Burma, The Purple Plain (1947) and The Jacaranda Tree (1949) and one set in India, The Scarlet Sword (1950).
Other well-known novels include Love for Lydia (1952) and The Feast of July (1954).
His most popular creation was the Larkin family which featured in five novels beginning with The Darling Buds of May in 1958. The later television adaptation was a huge success.
Many other stories were adapted for the screen, the most renowned being The Purple Plain (1947) starring Gregory Peck, and The Triple Echo (1970) with Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed.
H. E. Bates married in 1931, had four children and lived most of his life in a converted granary near Charing in Kent. He was awarded the CBE in 1973, shortly before his death in 1974.
Discover other books by H. E. Bates published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/hebates.
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For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book. The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.
First published in Great Britain in 1933 by Jonathan Cape Ltd
‘Pensioned Off’ first published in 1929 in the New Adelphi
This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Reader
Copyright © 1929, 1933 Evensford Productions Limited
The moral right of the author is asserted.
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eISBN: 9781448214969
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