It was cold on the bench. For the first hour or two he was grateful that, at least, it wasn’t raining, but after about one o’clock the cold became so intense that it could certainly not have been worse even if he had been soaking wet. There must be some knack of sleeping on these things; one more lesson that he had still to learn. You mustn’t lie down, he knew that, or a policeman could pull you in. You must keep sitting up and looking more or less as if you were awake. He tried drawing his knees up and hunching his body into a tight ball, then clasping his hands round his knees, leaning his head forward, and relaxing as far as possible with his fingers interlaced. But somehow it seemed to cramp the muscles of his back, and after about ten minutes he abandoned it. That was about every position he could think of: all no good. The clear chimes of some City clock came through the cold air. One-fifteen. A night or two without sleep didn’t necessarily harm you, if you were fit. Walk about a bit. He dragged himself along by the side of the quietly lapping, malevo­lent river. A litter box made of wire netting attracted his attention by gleaming whitely: it was full of sheets of newspaper. A piece of luck. One of the easiest ways of keeping warm. He stuffed loosely-rolled pads of it into the bottoms of his trousers, up to the knees, and inside his jacket. One or two of the sheets were rather greasy, as if they had been used for wrapping fish and chips. He should worry. The cold had affected the membranes of his nostrils so that he couldn’t smell anything. If he stank to high heaven of fish, he wouldn’t offend himself, only other people, and when you were a tramp you didn’t mind offending other people. It was what was expected of you. Always do what they expect of you, and you’ll be a success. How to make friends and influence people. How to influence friends and make people. How to people your friends’ influences. Stop that. Make your influences your friends, stop that, get a grip on yourself. I’ll get you sacked, Merde, see if I won’t. How to influence Merde.