Fifty-Eighth Session

Richard met Mrs K. at the corner of the road near the playroom. He looked very worried. First he asked whether the rearrangement of his sessions (to enable him to go home for his brother's leave) was still all right. Then he said he had some very distressing news. He was going to tell Mrs K. about it, but decided to wait until they were inside the house—it would be better there. He asked Mrs K. whether she had met Mr Smith, and at that moment noticed that he was passing by. He exchanged an extremely friendly greeting with him, but watched the way Mrs K. greeted him. When they were in the playroom, he put out the fleet and told Mrs K. the news. He had had more earache, and the doctor said that both ears were pink inside but that the right one ‘was of course the worse of the two’. He did not reply to Mrs K.'s question why this was ‘of course the worse’, but only added that it hurt more. In fact, at present it did not hurt at all, but what worried him so much was that he might need another operation. He often worried about this. All along Richard had been watching the road from the window and then said, with obvious relief, ‘Mr Smith has gone.’ (Mr Smith had again had a chat with the man on the other side of the road.)

Mrs K. pointed out that Mr Smith (standing for Mr K. and Daddy) was a constant source of persecution to Richard.

Richard looked very puzzled and said that Mr Smith was really quite a nice man.… He mentioned that Mr Evans had ‘given’ him sweets yesterday and praised him very much for that.

When Mrs K. asked whether Mr Evans had sold the sweets to him, Richard agreed, but passed this over very quickly, obviously not wanting to realize that Mr Evans actually took money for the sweets. Suddenly he became angry about Mr Evans and said that he had accepted an order for strawberries and had not delivered them. He said Mr Evans was a cheat. He also complained that on the previous Sunday, when people were queueing up for newspapers, Mr