Page 8

Smith plans a conversation with Ben's sister and a tavern scene in which aristocratic visitors want to go to a whore-house while Ben stays.

The page contains two pencil planning notes separated by a large empty area. The faint lettering between them is reverse-side show-through, not a missing scene. The note gives Ben a choice to stay behind, but Smith has not developed the conversation or the proposed outing here.

A pencil planning slip on Music Distributing Company letterhead: the heading 'Conversation with the sister.' and, far below, a dashed beat-list, 'Aristocratic types come into tavern - want to go to whore-house - young Ben stays -'.

This is the author blocking out scenes rather than writing them, so the page records intention, not finished prose. The one decisive beat is Ben's refusal: the moneyed visitors move on and he 'stays', a small act that sets him apart from them. The wide empty space between the two notes suggests an unwritten sister scene still to come.