Joyce's Ulysses Concordance

13. Nausicaa

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[16629][ 13 ]

[16630]

[16631]The summer evening had begun to fold the world in its mysterious

[16632]embrace. Far away in the west the sun was setting and the last glow of

[16633]all too fleeting day lingered lovingly on sea and strand, on the proud

[16634]promontory of dear old Howth guarding as ever the waters of the bay, on

[16635]the weedgrown rocks along Sandymount shore and, last but not least, on

[16636]the quiet church whence there streamed forth at times upon the stillness

[16637]the voice of prayer to her who is in her pure radiance a beacon ever to

[16638]the stormtossed heart of man, Mary, star of the sea.

[16639]

[16640]The three girl friends were seated on the rocks, enjoying the evening

[16641]scene and the air which was fresh but not too chilly. Many a time and

[16642]oft were they wont to come there to that favourite nook to have a cosy

[16643]chat beside the sparkling waves and discuss matters feminine, Cissy

[16644]Caffrey and Edy Boardman with the baby in the pushcar and Tommy and

[16645]Jacky Caffrey, two little curlyheaded boys, dressed in sailor suits with

[16646]caps to match and the name H. M. S. Belleisle printed on both. For Tommy

[16647]and Jacky Caffrey were twins, scarce four years old and very noisy and

[16648]spoiled twins sometimes but for all that darling little fellows with

[16649]bright merry faces and endearing ways about them. They were dabbling in

[16650]the sand with their spades and buckets, building castles as children do,

[16651]or playing with their big coloured ball, happy as the day was long. And

[16652]Edy Boardman was rocking the chubby baby to and fro in the pushcar while

[16653]that young gentleman fairly chuckled with delight. He was but eleven

[16654]months and nine days old and, though still a tiny toddler, was just

[16655]beginning to lisp his first babyish words. Cissy Caffrey bent over to

[16656]him to tease his fat little plucks and the dainty dimple in his chin.

[16657]

[16658]—Now, baby, Cissy Caffrey said. Say out big, big. I want a drink of

[16659]water.

[16660]

[16661]And baby prattled after her:

[16662]

[16663]—A jink a jink a jawbo.

[16664]

[16665]Cissy Caffrey cuddled the wee chap for she was awfully fond of children,

[16666]so patient with little sufferers and Tommy Caffrey could never be got to

[16667]take his castor oil unless it was Cissy Caffrey that held his nose and

[16668]promised him the scatty heel of the loaf or brown bread with golden

[16669]syrup on. What a persuasive power that girl had! But to be sure baby

[16670]Boardman was as good as gold, a perfect little dote in his new fancy

[16671]bib. None of your spoilt beauties, Flora MacFlimsy sort, was Cissy

[16672]Caffrey. A truerhearted lass never drew the breath of life, always with

[16673]a laugh in her gipsylike eyes and a frolicsome word on her cherryripe

[16674]red lips, a girl lovable in the extreme. And Edy Boardman laughed too at

[16675]the quaint language of little brother.

[16676]

[16677]But just then there was a slight altercation between Master Tommy and

[16678]Master Jacky. Boys will be boys and our two twins were no exception

[16679]to this golden rule. The apple of discord was a certain castle of sand

[16680]which Master Jacky had built and Master Tommy would have it right go

[16681]wrong that it was to be architecturally improved by a frontdoor like the

[16682]Martello tower had. But if Master Tommy was headstrong Master Jacky was

[16683]selfwilled too and, true to the maxim that every little Irishman’s

[16684]house is his castle, he fell upon his hated rival and to such purpose

[16685]that the wouldbe assailant came to grief and (alas to relate!) the

[16686]coveted castle too. Needless to say the cries of discomfited Master

[16687]Tommy drew the attention of the girl friends.

[16688]

[16689]—Come here, Tommy, his sister called imperatively. At once! And you,

[16690]Jacky, for shame to throw poor Tommy in the dirty sand. Wait till I

[16691]catch you for that.

[16692]

[16693]His eyes misty with unshed tears Master Tommy came at her call for their

[16694]big sister’s word was law with the twins. And in a sad plight he

[16695]was too after his misadventure. His little man-o’-war top and

[16696]unmentionables were full of sand but Cissy was a past mistress in the

[16697]art of smoothing over life’s tiny troubles and very quickly not one

[16698]speck of sand was to be seen on his smart little suit. Still the blue

[16699]eyes were glistening with hot tears that would well up so she kissed

[16700]away the hurtness and shook her hand at Master Jacky the culprit and

[16701]said if she was near him she wouldn’t be far from him, her eyes

[16702]dancing in admonition.

[16703]

[16704]—Nasty bold Jacky! she cried.

[16705]

[16706]She put an arm round the little mariner and coaxed winningly:

[16707]

[16708]—What’s your name? Butter and cream?

[16709]

[16710]—Tell us who is your sweetheart, spoke Edy Boardman. Is Cissy your

[16711]sweetheart?

[16712]

[16713]—Nao, tearful Tommy said.

[16714]

[16715]—Is Edy Boardman your sweetheart? Cissy queried.

[16716]

[16717]—Nao, Tommy said.

[16718]

[16719]—I know, Edy Boardman said none too amiably with an arch glance from

[16720]her shortsighted eyes. I know who is Tommy’s sweetheart. Gerty is

[16721]Tommy’s sweetheart.

[16722]

[16723]—Nao, Tommy said on the verge of tears.

[16724]

[16725]Cissy’s quick motherwit guessed what was amiss and she whispered to

[16726]Edy Boardman to take him there behind the pushcar where the gentleman

[16727]couldn’t see and to mind he didn’t wet his new tan shoes.

[16728]

[16729]But who was Gerty?

[16730]

[16731]Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought,

[16732]gazing far away into the distance was, in very truth, as fair a specimen

[16733]of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see. She was pronounced

[16734]beautiful by all who knew her though, as folks often said, she was

[16735]more a Giltrap than a MacDowell. Her figure was slight and graceful,

[16736]inclining even to fragility but those iron jelloids she had been

[16737]taking of late had done her a world of good much better than the Widow

[16738]Welch’s female pills and she was much better of those discharges she

[16739]used to get and that tired feeling. The waxen pallor of her face was

[16740]almost spiritual in its ivorylike purity though her rosebud mouth was a

[16741]genuine Cupid’s bow, Greekly perfect. Her hands were of finely veined

[16742]alabaster with tapering fingers and as white as lemonjuice and queen of

[16743]ointments could make them though it was not true that she used to wear

[16744]kid gloves in bed or take a milk footbath either. Bertha Supple told

[16745]that once to Edy Boardman, a deliberate lie, when she was black out

[16746]at daggers drawn with Gerty (the girl chums had of course their little

[16747]tiffs from time to time like the rest of mortals) and she told her not

[16748]to let on whatever she did that it was her that told her or she’d

[16749]never speak to her again. No. Honour where honour is due. There was

[16750]an innate refinement, a languid queenly hauteur about Gerty which was

[16751]unmistakably evidenced in her delicate hands and higharched instep. Had

[16752]kind fate but willed her to be born a gentlewoman of high degree in

[16753]her own right and had she only received the benefit of a good education

[16754]Gerty MacDowell might easily have held her own beside any lady in the

[16755]land and have seen herself exquisitely gowned with jewels on her brow

[16756]and patrician suitors at her feet vying with one another to pay their

[16757]devoirs to her. Mayhap it was this, the love that might have been, that

[16758]lent to her softlyfeatured face at whiles a look, tense with suppressed

[16759]meaning, that imparted a strange yearning tendency to the beautiful

[16760]eyes, a charm few could resist. Why have women such eyes of witchery?

[16761]Gerty’s were of the bluest Irish blue, set off by lustrous lashes and

[16762]dark expressive brows. Time was when those brows were not so silkily

[16763]seductive. It was Madame Vera Verity, directress of the Woman Beautiful

[16764]page of the Princess Novelette, who had first advised her to try

[16765]eyebrowleine which gave that haunting expression to the eyes, so

[16766]becoming in leaders of fashion, and she had never regretted it. Then

[16767]there was blushing scientifically cured and how to be tall increase your

[16768]height and you have a beautiful face but your nose? That would suit Mrs

[16769]Dignam because she had a button one. But Gerty’s crowning glory was

[16770]her wealth of wonderful hair. It was dark brown with a natural wave in

[16771]it. She had cut it that very morning on account of the new moon and it

[16772]nestled about her pretty head in a profusion of luxuriant clusters and

[16773]pared her nails too, Thursday for wealth. And just now at Edy’s words

[16774]as a telltale flush, delicate as the faintest rosebloom, crept into

[16775]her cheeks she looked so lovely in her sweet girlish shyness that of a

[16776]surety God’s fair land of Ireland did not hold her equal.

[16777]

[16778]For an instant she was silent with rather sad downcast eyes. She

[16779]was about to retort but something checked the words on her tongue.

[16780]Inclination prompted her to speak out: dignity told her to be silent.

[16781]The pretty lips pouted awhile but then she glanced up and broke out into

[16782]a joyous little laugh which had in it all the freshness of a young May

[16783]morning. She knew right well, no-one better, what made squinty Edy

[16784]say that because of him cooling in his attentions when it was simply a

[16785]lovers’ quarrel. As per usual somebody’s nose was out of joint about

[16786]the boy that had the bicycle off the London bridge road always riding up

[16787]and down in front of her window. Only now his father kept him in in the

[16788]evenings studying hard to get an exhibition in the intermediate that was

[16789]on and he was going to go to Trinity college to study for a doctor when

[16790]he left the high school like his brother W. E. Wylie who was racing

[16791]in the bicycle races in Trinity college university. Little recked he

[16792]perhaps for what she felt, that dull aching void in her heart sometimes,

[16793]piercing to the core. Yet he was young and perchance he might learn

[16794]to love her in time. They were protestants in his family and of course

[16795]Gerty knew Who came first and after Him the Blessed Virgin and then

[16796]Saint Joseph. But he was undeniably handsome with an exquisite nose and

[16797]he was what he looked, every inch a gentleman, the shape of his head too

[16798]at the back without his cap on that she would know anywhere something

[16799]off the common and the way he turned the bicycle at the lamp with his

[16800]hands off the bars and also the nice perfume of those good cigarettes

[16801]and besides they were both of a size too he and she and that was why Edy

[16802]Boardman thought she was so frightfully clever because he didn’t go

[16803]and ride up and down in front of her bit of a garden.

[16804]

[16805]Gerty was dressed simply but with the instinctive taste of a votary of

[16806]Dame Fashion for she felt that there was just a might that he might be

[16807]out. A neat blouse of electric blue selftinted by dolly dyes (because it

[16808]was expected in the Lady’s Pictorial that electric blue would be worn)

[16809]with a smart vee opening down to the division and kerchief pocket (in

[16810]which she always kept a piece of cottonwool scented with her

[16811]favourite perfume because the handkerchief spoiled the sit) and a navy

[16812]threequarter skirt cut to the stride showed off her slim graceful figure

[16813]to perfection. She wore a coquettish little love of a hat of wideleaved

[16814]nigger straw contrast trimmed with an underbrim of eggblue chenille and

[16815]at the side a butterfly bow of silk to tone. All Tuesday week afternoon

[16816]she was hunting to match that chenille but at last she found what she

[16817]wanted at Clery’s summer sales, the very it, slightly shopsoiled but

[16818]you would never notice, seven fingers two and a penny. She did it up all

[16819]by herself and what joy was hers when she tried it on then, smiling at

[16820]the lovely reflection which the mirror gave back to her! And when she

[16821]put it on the waterjug to keep the shape she knew that that would take

[16822]the shine out of some people she knew. Her shoes were the newest thing

[16823]in footwear (Edy Boardman prided herself that she was very petite but

[16824]she never had a foot like Gerty MacDowell, a five, and never would

[16825]ash, oak or elm) with patent toecaps and just one smart buckle over

[16826]her higharched instep. Her wellturned ankle displayed its perfect

[16827]proportions beneath her skirt and just the proper amount and no more of

[16828]her shapely limbs encased in finespun hose with highspliced heels and

[16829]wide garter tops. As for undies they were Gerty’s chief care and who

[16830]that knows the fluttering hopes and fears of sweet seventeen (though

[16831]Gerty would never see seventeen again) can find it in his heart to

[16832]blame her? She had four dinky sets with awfully pretty stitchery,

[16833]three garments and nighties extra, and each set slotted with different

[16834]coloured ribbons, rosepink, pale blue, mauve and peagreen, and she aired

[16835]them herself and blued them when they came home from the wash and ironed

[16836]them and she had a brickbat to keep the iron on because she wouldn’t

[16837]trust those washerwomen as far as she’d see them scorching the things.

[16838]She was wearing the blue for luck, hoping against hope, her own colour

[16839]and lucky too for a bride to have a bit of blue somewhere on her because

[16840]the green she wore that day week brought grief because his father

[16841]brought him in to study for the intermediate exhibition and because

[16842]she thought perhaps he might be out because when she was dressing that

[16843]morning she nearly slipped up the old pair on her inside out and that

[16844]was for luck and lovers’ meeting if you put those things on inside

[16845]out or if they got untied that he was thinking about you so long as it

[16846]wasn’t of a Friday.

[16847]

[16848]And yet and yet! That strained look on her face! A gnawing sorrow is

[16849]there all the time. Her very soul is in her eyes and she would give

[16850]worlds to be in the privacy of her own familiar chamber where, giving

[16851]way to tears, she could have a good cry and relieve her pentup feelings

[16852]though not too much because she knew how to cry nicely before the

[16853]mirror. You are lovely, Gerty, it said. The paly light of evening falls

[16854]upon a face infinitely sad and wistful. Gerty MacDowell yearns in vain.

[16855]Yes, she had known from the very first that her daydream of a marriage

[16856]has been arranged and the weddingbells ringing for Mrs Reggy Wylie T.

[16857]C. D. (because the one who married the elder brother would be Mrs Wylie)

[16858]and in the fashionable intelligence Mrs Gertrude Wylie was wearing a

[16859]sumptuous confection of grey trimmed with expensive blue fox was not

[16860]to be. He was too young to understand. He would not believe in love, a

[16861]woman’s birthright. The night of the party long ago in Stoer’s (he

[16862]was still in short trousers) when they were alone and he stole an arm

[16863]round her waist she went white to the very lips. He called her little

[16864]one in a strangely husky voice and snatched a half kiss (the first!) but

[16865]it was only the end of her nose and then he hastened from the room with

[16866]a remark about refreshments. Impetuous fellow! Strength of character

[16867]had never been Reggy Wylie’s strong point and he who would woo and win

[16868]Gerty MacDowell must be a man among men. But waiting, always waiting

[16869]to be asked and it was leap year too and would soon be over. No prince

[16870]charming is her beau ideal to lay a rare and wondrous love at her feet

[16871]but rather a manly man with a strong quiet face who had not found

[16872]his ideal, perhaps his hair slightly flecked with grey, and who would

[16873]understand, take her in his sheltering arms, strain her to him in all

[16874]the strength of his deep passionate nature and comfort her with a long

[16875]long kiss. It would be like heaven. For such a one she yearns this balmy

[16876]summer eve. With all the heart of her she longs to be his only, his

[16877]affianced bride for riches for poor, in sickness in health, till death

[16878]us two part, from this to this day forward.

[16879]

[16880]And while Edy Boardman was with little Tommy behind the pushcar she was

[16881]just thinking would the day ever come when she could call herself his

[16882]little wife to be. Then they could talk about her till they went blue in

[16883]the face, Bertha Supple too, and Edy, little spitfire, because she would

[16884]be twentytwo in November. She would care for him with creature comforts

[16885]too for Gerty was womanly wise and knew that a mere man liked that

[16886]feeling of hominess. Her griddlecakes done to a goldenbrown hue and

[16887]queen Ann’s pudding of delightful creaminess had won golden opinions

[16888]from all because she had a lucky hand also for lighting a fire, dredge

[16889]in the fine selfraising flour and always stir in the same direction,

[16890]then cream the milk and sugar and whisk well the white of eggs though

[16891]she didn’t like the eating part when there were any people that made

[16892]her shy and often she wondered why you couldn’t eat something poetical

[16893]like violets or roses and they would have a beautifully appointed

[16894]drawingroom with pictures and engravings and the photograph of grandpapa

[16895]Giltrap’s lovely dog Garryowen that almost talked it was so human

[16896]and chintz covers for the chairs and that silver toastrack in Clery’s

[16897]summer jumble sales like they have in rich houses. He would be tall with

[16898]broad shoulders (she had always admired tall men for a husband) with

[16899]glistening white teeth under his carefully trimmed sweeping moustache

[16900]and they would go on the continent for their honeymoon (three wonderful

[16901]weeks!) and then, when they settled down in a nice snug and cosy little

[16902]homely house, every morning they would both have brekky, simple but

[16903]perfectly served, for their own two selves and before he went out to

[16904]business he would give his dear little wifey a good hearty hug and gaze

[16905]for a moment deep down into her eyes.

[16906]

[16907]Edy Boardman asked Tommy Caffrey was he done and he said yes so then she

[16908]buttoned up his little knickerbockers for him and told him to run off

[16909]and play with Jacky and to be good now and not to fight. But Tommy said

[16910]he wanted the ball and Edy told him no that baby was playing with the

[16911]ball and if he took it there’d be wigs on the green but Tommy said it

[16912]was his ball and he wanted his ball and he pranced on the ground, if

[16913]you please. The temper of him! O, he was a man already was little Tommy

[16914]Caffrey since he was out of pinnies. Edy told him no, no and to be off

[16915]now with him and she told Cissy Caffrey not to give in to him.

[16916]

[16917]—You’re not my sister, naughty Tommy said. It’s my ball.

[16918]

[16919]But Cissy Caffrey told baby Boardman to look up, look up high at her

[16920]finger and she snatched the ball quickly and threw it along the sand and

[16921]Tommy after it in full career, having won the day.

[16922]

[16923]—Anything for a quiet life, laughed Ciss.

[16924]

[16925]And she tickled tiny tot’s two cheeks to make him forget and

[16926]played here’s the lord mayor, here’s his two horses, here’s his

[16927]gingerbread carriage and here he walks in, chinchopper, chinchopper,

[16928]chinchopper chin. But Edy got as cross as two sticks about him getting

[16929]his own way like that from everyone always petting him.

[16930]

[16931]—I’d like to give him something, she said, so I would, where I

[16932]won’t say.

[16933]

[16934]—On the beeoteetom, laughed Cissy merrily.

[16935]

[16936]Gerty MacDowell bent down her head and crimsoned at the idea of Cissy

[16937]saying an unladylike thing like that out loud she’d be ashamed of her

[16938]life to say, flushing a deep rosy red, and Edy Boardman said she was

[16939]sure the gentleman opposite heard what she said. But not a pin cared

[16940]Ciss.

[16941]

[16942]—Let him! she said with a pert toss of her head and a piquant tilt of

[16943]her nose. Give it to him too on the same place as quick as I’d look at

[16944]him.

[16945]

[16946]Madcap Ciss with her golliwog curls. You had to laugh at her sometimes.

[16947]For instance when she asked you would you have some more Chinese tea and

[16948]jaspberry ram and when she drew the jugs too and the men’s faces on

[16949]her nails with red ink make you split your sides or when she wanted to

[16950]go where you know she said she wanted to run and pay a visit to the Miss

[16951]White. That was just like Cissycums. O, and will you ever forget her

[16952]the evening she dressed up in her father’s suit and hat and the burned

[16953]cork moustache and walked down Tritonville road, smoking a cigarette.

[16954]There was none to come up to her for fun. But she was sincerity itself,

[16955]one of the bravest and truest hearts heaven ever made, not one of your

[16956]twofaced things, too sweet to be wholesome.

[16957]

[16958]And then there came out upon the air the sound of voices and the pealing

[16959]anthem of the organ. It was the men’s temperance retreat conducted

[16960]by the missioner, the reverend John Hughes S. J., rosary, sermon and

[16961]benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. They were there gathered

[16962]together without distinction of social class (and a most edifying

[16963]spectacle it was to see) in that simple fane beside the waves, after the

[16964]storms of this weary world, kneeling before the feet of the immaculate,

[16965]reciting the litany of Our Lady of Loreto, beseeching her to intercede

[16966]for them, the old familiar words, holy Mary, holy virgin of virgins. How

[16967]sad to poor Gerty’s ears! Had her father only avoided the clutches of

[16968]the demon drink, by taking the pledge or those powders the drink habit

[16969]cured in Pearson’s Weekly, she might now be rolling in her carriage,

[16970]second to none. Over and over had she told herself that as she mused by

[16971]the dying embers in a brown study without the lamp because she hated two

[16972]lights or oftentimes gazing out of the window dreamily by the hour at

[16973]the rain falling on the rusty bucket, thinking. But that vile decoction

[16974]which has ruined so many hearths and homes had cast its shadow over her

[16975]childhood days. Nay, she had even witnessed in the home circle deeds of

[16976]violence caused by intemperance and had seen her own father, a prey to

[16977]the fumes of intoxication, forget himself completely for if there was

[16978]one thing of all things that Gerty knew it was that the man who lifts

[16979]his hand to a woman save in the way of kindness, deserves to be branded

[16980]as the lowest of the low.

[16981]

[16982]And still the voices sang in supplication to the Virgin most powerful,

[16983]Virgin most merciful. And Gerty, rapt in thought, scarce saw or heard

[16984]her companions or the twins at their boyish gambols or the gentleman

[16985]off Sandymount green that Cissy Caffrey called the man that was so like

[16986]himself passing along the strand taking a short walk. You never saw him

[16987]any way screwed but still and for all that she would not like him for a

[16988]father because he was too old or something or on account of his face

[16989](it was a palpable case of Doctor Fell) or his carbuncly nose with the

[16990]pimples on it and his sandy moustache a bit white under his nose. Poor

[16991]father! With all his faults she loved him still when he sang Tell me,

[16992]Mary, how to woo thee or My love and cottage near Rochelle and they had

[16993]stewed cockles and lettuce with Lazenby’s salad dressing for supper

[16994]and when he sang The moon hath raised with Mr Dignam that died suddenly

[16995]and was buried, God have mercy on him, from a stroke. Her mother’s

[16996]birthday that was and Charley was home on his holidays and Tom and Mr

[16997]Dignam and Mrs and Patsy and Freddy Dignam and they were to have had a

[16998]group taken. No-one would have thought the end was so near. Now he was

[16999]laid to rest. And her mother said to him to let that be a warning to

[17000]him for the rest of his days and he couldn’t even go to the funeral on

[17001]account of the gout and she had to go into town to bring him the letters

[17002]and samples from his office about Catesby’s cork lino, artistic,

[17003]standard designs, fit for a palace, gives tiptop wear and always bright

[17004]and cheery in the home.

[17005]

[17006]A sterling good daughter was Gerty just like a second mother in the

[17007]house, a ministering angel too with a little heart worth its weight in

[17008]gold. And when her mother had those raging splitting headaches who was

[17009]it rubbed the menthol cone on her forehead but Gerty though she didn’t

[17010]like her mother’s taking pinches of snuff and that was the only single

[17011]thing they ever had words about, taking snuff. Everyone thought the

[17012]world of her for her gentle ways. It was Gerty who turned off the gas at

[17013]the main every night and it was Gerty who tacked up on the wall of that

[17014]place where she never forgot every fortnight the chlorate of lime Mr

[17015]Tunney the grocer’s christmas almanac, the picture of halcyon days

[17016]where a young gentleman in the costume they used to wear then with a

[17017]threecornered hat was offering a bunch of flowers to his ladylove with

[17018]oldtime chivalry through her lattice window. You could see there was a

[17019]story behind it. The colours were done something lovely. She was in

[17020]a soft clinging white in a studied attitude and the gentleman was in

[17021]chocolate and he looked a thorough aristocrat. She often looked at them

[17022]dreamily when she went there for a certain purpose and felt her own

[17023]arms that were white and soft just like hers with the sleeves back

[17024]and thought about those times because she had found out in Walker’s

[17025]pronouncing dictionary that belonged to grandpapa Giltrap about the

[17026]halcyon days what they meant.

[17027]

[17028]The twins were now playing in the most approved brotherly fashion

[17029]till at last Master Jacky who was really as bold as brass there was

[17030]no getting behind that deliberately kicked the ball as hard as ever he

[17031]could down towards the seaweedy rocks. Needless to say poor Tommy was

[17032]not slow to voice his dismay but luckily the gentleman in black who was

[17033]sitting there by himself came gallantly to the rescue and intercepted

[17034]the ball. Our two champions claimed their plaything with lusty cries and

[17035]to avoid trouble Cissy Caffrey called to the gentleman to throw it to

[17036]her please. The gentleman aimed the ball once or twice and then threw

[17037]it up the strand towards Cissy Caffrey but it rolled down the slope and

[17038]stopped right under Gerty’s skirt near the little pool by the rock.

[17039]The twins clamoured again for it and Cissy told her to kick it away and

[17040]let them fight for it so Gerty drew back her foot but she wished their

[17041]stupid ball hadn’t come rolling down to her and she gave a kick but

[17042]she missed and Edy and Cissy laughed.

[17043]

[17044]—If you fail try again, Edy Boardman said.

[17045]

[17046]Gerty smiled assent and bit her lip. A delicate pink crept into her

[17047]pretty cheek but she was determined to let them see so she just lifted

[17048]her skirt a little but just enough and took good aim and gave the ball a

[17049]jolly good kick and it went ever so far and the two twins after it down

[17050]towards the shingle. Pure jealousy of course it was nothing else to draw

[17051]attention on account of the gentleman opposite looking. She felt the

[17052]warm flush, a danger signal always with Gerty MacDowell, surging and

[17053]flaming into her cheeks. Till then they had only exchanged glances of

[17054]the most casual but now under the brim of her new hat she ventured a

[17055]look at him and the face that met her gaze there in the twilight, wan

[17056]and strangely drawn, seemed to her the saddest she had ever seen.

[17057]

[17058]Through the open window of the church the fragrant incense was wafted

[17059]and with it the fragrant names of her who was conceived without stain of

[17060]original sin, spiritual vessel, pray for us, honourable vessel, pray

[17061]for us, vessel of singular devotion, pray for us, mystical rose. And

[17062]careworn hearts were there and toilers for their daily bread and many

[17063]who had erred and wandered, their eyes wet with contrition but for all

[17064]that bright with hope for the reverend father Father Hughes had told

[17065]them what the great saint Bernard said in his famous prayer of Mary, the

[17066]most pious Virgin’s intercessory power that it was not recorded in any

[17067]age that those who implored her powerful protection were ever abandoned

[17068]by her.

[17069]

[17070]The twins were now playing again right merrily for the troubles of

[17071]childhood are but as fleeting summer showers. Cissy Caffrey played with

[17072]baby Boardman till he crowed with glee, clapping baby hands in air. Peep

[17073]she cried behind the hood of the pushcar and Edy asked where was Cissy

[17074]gone and then Cissy popped up her head and cried ah! and, my word,

[17075]didn’t the little chap enjoy that! And then she told him to say papa.

[17076]

[17077]—Say papa, baby. Say pa pa pa pa pa pa pa.

[17078]

[17079]And baby did his level best to say it for he was very intelligent for

[17080]eleven months everyone said and big for his age and the picture of

[17081]health, a perfect little bunch of love, and he would certainly turn out

[17082]to be something great, they said.

[17083]

[17084]—Haja ja ja haja.

[17085]

[17086]Cissy wiped his little mouth with the dribbling bib and wanted him to

[17087]sit up properly and say pa pa pa but when she undid the strap she cried

[17088]out, holy saint Denis, that he was possing wet and to double the half

[17089]blanket the other way under him. Of course his infant majesty was most

[17090]obstreperous at such toilet formalities and he let everyone know it:

[17091]

[17092]—Habaa baaaahabaaa baaaa.

[17093]

[17094]And two great big lovely big tears coursing down his cheeks. It was all

[17095]no use soothering him with no, nono, baby, no and telling him about the

[17096]geegee and where was the puffpuff but Ciss, always readywitted, gave

[17097]him in his mouth the teat of the suckingbottle and the young heathen was

[17098]quickly appeased.

[17099]

[17100]Gerty wished to goodness they would take their squalling baby home out

[17101]of that and not get on her nerves, no hour to be out, and the little

[17102]brats of twins. She gazed out towards the distant sea. It was like the

[17103]paintings that man used to do on the pavement with all the coloured

[17104]chalks and such a pity too leaving them there to be all blotted out, the

[17105]evening and the clouds coming out and the Bailey light on Howth and to

[17106]hear the music like that and the perfume of those incense they burned

[17107]in the church like a kind of waft. And while she gazed her heart went

[17108]pitapat. Yes, it was her he was looking at, and there was meaning in his

[17109]look. His eyes burned into her as though they would search her through

[17110]and through, read her very soul. Wonderful eyes they were, superbly

[17111]expressive, but could you trust them? People were so queer. She could

[17112]see at once by his dark eyes and his pale intellectual face that he

[17113]was a foreigner, the image of the photo she had of Martin Harvey, the

[17114]matinee idol, only for the moustache which she preferred because she

[17115]wasn’t stagestruck like Winny Rippingham that wanted they two to

[17116]always dress the same on account of a play but she could not see whether

[17117]he had an aquiline nose or a slightly retroussé from where he was

[17118]sitting. He was in deep mourning, she could see that, and the story of a

[17119]haunting sorrow was written on his face. She would have given worlds to

[17120]know what it was. He was looking up so intently, so still, and he saw

[17121]her kick the ball and perhaps he could see the bright steel buckles of

[17122]her shoes if she swung them like that thoughtfully with the toes down.

[17123]She was glad that something told her to put on the transparent stockings

[17124]thinking Reggy Wylie might be out but that was far away. Here was that

[17125]of which she had so often dreamed. It was he who mattered and there was

[17126]joy on her face because she wanted him because she felt instinctively

[17127]that he was like no-one else. The very heart of the girlwoman went out

[17128]to him, her dreamhusband, because she knew on the instant it was him. If

[17129]he had suffered, more sinned against than sinning, or even, even, if he

[17130]had been himself a sinner, a wicked man, she cared not. Even if he was

[17131]a protestant or methodist she could convert him easily if he truly loved

[17132]her. There were wounds that wanted healing with heartbalm. She was a

[17133]womanly woman not like other flighty girls unfeminine he had known,

[17134]those cyclists showing off what they hadn’t got and she just yearned

[17135]to know all, to forgive all if she could make him fall in love with her,

[17136]make him forget the memory of the past. Then mayhap he would embrace her

[17137]gently, like a real man, crushing her soft body to him, and love her,

[17138]his ownest girlie, for herself alone.

[17139]

[17140]Refuge of sinners. Comfortress of the afflicted. Ora pro nobis. Well has

[17141]it been said that whosoever prays to her with faith and constancy can

[17142]never be lost or cast away: and fitly is she too a haven of refuge for

[17143]the afflicted because of the seven dolours which transpierced her own

[17144]heart. Gerty could picture the whole scene in the church, the stained

[17145]glass windows lighted up, the candles, the flowers and the blue banners

[17146]of the blessed Virgin’s sodality and Father Conroy was helping Canon

[17147]O’Hanlon at the altar, carrying things in and out with his eyes cast

[17148]down. He looked almost a saint and his confessionbox was so quiet and

[17149]clean and dark and his hands were just like white wax and if ever she

[17150]became a Dominican nun in their white habit perhaps he might come to the

[17151]convent for the novena of Saint Dominic. He told her that time when she

[17152]told him about that in confession, crimsoning up to the roots of her

[17153]hair for fear he could see, not to be troubled because that was only the

[17154]voice of nature and we were all subject to nature’s laws, he said, in

[17155]this life and that that was no sin because that came from the nature of

[17156]woman instituted by God, he said, and that Our Blessed Lady herself said

[17157]to the archangel Gabriel be it done unto me according to Thy Word. He

[17158]was so kind and holy and often and often she thought and thought could

[17159]she work a ruched teacosy with embroidered floral design for him as a

[17160]present or a clock but they had a clock she noticed on the mantelpiece

[17161]white and gold with a canarybird that came out of a little house to tell

[17162]the time the day she went there about the flowers for the forty hours’

[17163]adoration because it was hard to know what sort of a present to give or

[17164]perhaps an album of illuminated views of Dublin or some place.

[17165]

[17166]The exasperating little brats of twins began to quarrel again and Jacky

[17167]threw the ball out towards the sea and they both ran after it. Little

[17168]monkeys common as ditchwater. Someone ought to take them and give them

[17169]a good hiding for themselves to keep them in their places, the both of

[17170]them. And Cissy and Edy shouted after them to come back because they

[17171]were afraid the tide might come in on them and be drowned.

[17172]

[17173]—Jacky! Tommy!

[17174]

[17175]Not they! What a great notion they had! So Cissy said it was the very

[17176]last time she’d ever bring them out. She jumped up and called them and

[17177]she ran down the slope past him, tossing her hair behind her which had

[17178]a good enough colour if there had been more of it but with all the

[17179]thingamerry she was always rubbing into it she couldn’t get it to grow

[17180]long because it wasn’t natural so she could just go and throw her hat

[17181]at it. She ran with long gandery strides it was a wonder she didn’t

[17182]rip up her skirt at the side that was too tight on her because there

[17183]was a lot of the tomboy about Cissy Caffrey and she was a forward piece

[17184]whenever she thought she had a good opportunity to show off and just

[17185]because she was a good runner she ran like that so that he could see

[17186]all the end of her petticoat running and her skinny shanks up as far as

[17187]possible. It would have served her just right if she had tripped up over

[17188]something accidentally on purpose with her high crooked French heels

[17189]on her to make her look tall and got a fine tumble. Tableau! That would

[17190]have been a very charming exposé for a gentleman like that to witness.

[17191]

[17192]Queen of angels, queen of patriarchs, queen of prophets, of all saints,

[17193]they prayed, queen of the most holy rosary and then Father Conroy handed

[17194]the thurible to Canon O’Hanlon and he put in the incense and censed

[17195]the Blessed Sacrament and Cissy Caffrey caught the two twins and she

[17196]was itching to give them a ringing good clip on the ear but she didn’t

[17197]because she thought he might be watching but she never made a bigger

[17198]mistake in all her life because Gerty could see without looking that

[17199]he never took his eyes off of her and then Canon O’Hanlon handed the

[17200]thurible back to Father Conroy and knelt down looking up at the Blessed

[17201]Sacrament and the choir began to sing the Tantum ergo and she just swung

[17202]her foot in and out in time as the music rose and fell to the Tantumer

[17203]gosa cramen tum. Three and eleven she paid for those stockings in

[17204]Sparrow’s of George’s street on the Tuesday, no the Monday before

[17205]Easter and there wasn’t a brack on them and that was what he was

[17206]looking at, transparent, and not at her insignificant ones that had

[17207]neither shape nor form (the cheek of her!) because he had eyes in his

[17208]head to see the difference for himself.

[17209]

[17210]Cissy came up along the strand with the two twins and their ball with

[17211]her hat anyhow on her to one side after her run and she did look a

[17212]streel tugging the two kids along with the flimsy blouse she bought only

[17213]a fortnight before like a rag on her back and a bit of her petticoat

[17214]hanging like a caricature. Gerty just took off her hat for a moment to

[17215]settle her hair and a prettier, a daintier head of nutbrown tresses was

[17216]never seen on a girl’s shoulders—a radiant little vision, in sooth,

[17217]almost maddening in its sweetness. You would have to travel many a long

[17218]mile before you found a head of hair the like of that. She could almost

[17219]see the swift answering flash of admiration in his eyes that set her

[17220]tingling in every nerve. She put on her hat so that she could see from

[17221]underneath the brim and swung her buckled shoe faster for her breath

[17222]caught as she caught the expression in his eyes. He was eying her as a

[17223]snake eyes its prey. Her woman’s instinct told her that she had raised

[17224]the devil in him and at the thought a burning scarlet swept from throat

[17225]to brow till the lovely colour of her face became a glorious rose.

[17226]

[17227]Edy Boardman was noticing it too because she was squinting at Gerty,

[17228]half smiling, with her specs like an old maid, pretending to nurse the

[17229]baby. Irritable little gnat she was and always would be and that was why

[17230]no-one could get on with her poking her nose into what was no concern of

[17231]hers. And she said to Gerty:

[17232]

[17233]—A penny for your thoughts.

[17234]

[17235]—What? replied Gerty with a smile reinforced by the whitest of teeth.

[17236]I was only wondering was it late.

[17237]

[17238]Because she wished to goodness they’d take the snottynosed twins and

[17239]their babby home to the mischief out of that so that was why she just

[17240]gave a gentle hint about its being late. And when Cissy came up Edy

[17241]asked her the time and Miss Cissy, as glib as you like, said it was half

[17242]past kissing time, time to kiss again. But Edy wanted to know because

[17243]they were told to be in early.

[17244]

[17245]—Wait, said Cissy, I’ll run ask my uncle Peter over there what’s

[17246]the time by his conundrum.

[17247]

[17248]So over she went and when he saw her coming she could see him take his

[17249]hand out of his pocket, getting nervous, and beginning to play with his

[17250]watchchain, looking up at the church. Passionate nature though he was

[17251]Gerty could see that he had enormous control over himself. One moment he

[17252]had been there, fascinated by a loveliness that made him gaze, and the

[17253]next moment it was the quiet gravefaced gentleman, selfcontrol expressed

[17254]in every line of his distinguishedlooking figure.

[17255]

[17256]Cissy said to excuse her would he mind please telling her what was the

[17257]right time and Gerty could see him taking out his watch, listening to it

[17258]and looking up and clearing his throat and he said he was very sorry his

[17259]watch was stopped but he thought it must be after eight because the

[17260]sun was set. His voice had a cultured ring in it and though he spoke in

[17261]measured accents there was a suspicion of a quiver in the mellow tones.

[17262]Cissy said thanks and came back with her tongue out and said uncle said

[17263]his waterworks were out of order.

[17264]

[17265]Then they sang the second verse of the Tantum ergo and Canon O’Hanlon

[17266]got up again and censed the Blessed Sacrament and knelt down and he told

[17267]Father Conroy that one of the candles was just going to set fire to the

[17268]flowers and Father Conroy got up and settled it all right and she could

[17269]see the gentleman winding his watch and listening to the works and she

[17270]swung her leg more in and out in time. It was getting darker but he

[17271]could see and he was looking all the time that he was winding the watch

[17272]or whatever he was doing to it and then he put it back and put his hands

[17273]back into his pockets. She felt a kind of a sensation rushing all over

[17274]her and she knew by the feel of her scalp and that irritation against

[17275]her stays that that thing must be coming on because the last time too

[17276]was when she clipped her hair on account of the moon. His dark eyes

[17277]fixed themselves on her again drinking in her every contour, literally

[17278]worshipping at her shrine. If ever there was undisguised admiration in

[17279]a man’s passionate gaze it was there plain to be seen on that man’s

[17280]face. It is for you, Gertrude MacDowell, and you know it.

[17281]

[17282]Edy began to get ready to go and it was high time for her and Gerty

[17283]noticed that that little hint she gave had had the desired effect

[17284]because it was a long way along the strand to where there was the place

[17285]to push up the pushcar and Cissy took off the twins’ caps and tidied

[17286]their hair to make herself attractive of course and Canon O’Hanlon

[17287]stood up with his cope poking up at his neck and Father Conroy handed

[17288]him the card to read off and he read out Panem de coelo praestitisti eis

[17289]and Edy and Cissy were talking about the time all the time and asking

[17290]her but Gerty could pay them back in their own coin and she just

[17291]answered with scathing politeness when Edy asked her was she heartbroken

[17292]about her best boy throwing her over. Gerty winced sharply. A brief cold

[17293]blaze shone from her eyes that spoke volumes of scorn immeasurable. It

[17294]hurt—O yes, it cut deep because Edy had her own quiet way of saying

[17295]things like that she knew would wound like the confounded little cat she

[17296]was. Gerty’s lips parted swiftly to frame the word but she fought back

[17297]the sob that rose to her throat, so slim, so flawless, so beautifully

[17298]moulded it seemed one an artist might have dreamed of. She had loved him

[17299]better than he knew. Lighthearted deceiver and fickle like all his sex

[17300]he would never understand what he had meant to her and for an instant

[17301]there was in the blue eyes a quick stinging of tears. Their eyes were

[17302]probing her mercilessly but with a brave effort she sparkled back in

[17303]sympathy as she glanced at her new conquest for them to see.

[17304]

[17305]—O, responded Gerty, quick as lightning, laughing, and the proud head

[17306]flashed up. I can throw my cap at who I like because it’s leap year.

[17307]

[17308]Her words rang out crystalclear, more musical than the cooing of the

[17309]ringdove, but they cut the silence icily. There was that in her young

[17310]voice that told that she was not a one to be lightly trifled with. As

[17311]for Mr Reggy with his swank and his bit of money she could just chuck

[17312]him aside as if he was so much filth and never again would she cast as

[17313]much as a second thought on him and tear his silly postcard into a dozen

[17314]pieces. And if ever after he dared to presume she could give him one

[17315]look of measured scorn that would make him shrivel up on the spot. Miss

[17316]puny little Edy’s countenance fell to no slight extent and Gerty could

[17317]see by her looking as black as thunder that she was simply in a towering

[17318]rage though she hid it, the little kinnatt, because that shaft had

[17319]struck home for her petty jealousy and they both knew that she was

[17320]something aloof, apart, in another sphere, that she was not of them and

[17321]never would be and there was somebody else too that knew it and saw it

[17322]so they could put that in their pipe and smoke it.

[17323]

[17324]Edy straightened up baby Boardman to get ready to go and Cissy tucked in

[17325]the ball and the spades and buckets and it was high time too because the

[17326]sandman was on his way for Master Boardman junior. And Cissy told him

[17327]too that billy winks was coming and that baby was to go deedaw and baby

[17328]looked just too ducky, laughing up out of his gleeful eyes, and Cissy

[17329]poked him like that out of fun in his wee fat tummy and baby, without as

[17330]much as by your leave, sent up his compliments to all and sundry on to

[17331]his brandnew dribbling bib.

[17332]

[17333]—O my! Puddeny pie! protested Ciss. He has his bib destroyed.

[17334]

[17335]The slight contretemps claimed her attention but in two twos she set

[17336]that little matter to rights.

[17337]

[17338]Gerty stifled a smothered exclamation and gave a nervous cough and Edy

[17339]asked what and she was just going to tell her to catch it while it was

[17340]flying but she was ever ladylike in her deportment so she simply passed

[17341]it off with consummate tact by saying that that was the benediction

[17342]because just then the bell rang out from the steeple over the quiet

[17343]seashore because Canon O’Hanlon was up on the altar with the veil that

[17344]Father Conroy put round his shoulders giving the benediction with the

[17345]Blessed Sacrament in his hands.

[17346]

[17347]How moving the scene there in the gathering twilight, the last glimpse

[17348]of Erin, the touching chime of those evening bells and at the same

[17349]time a bat flew forth from the ivied belfry through the dusk, hither,

[17350]thither, with a tiny lost cry. And she could see far away the lights of

[17351]the lighthouses so picturesque she would have loved to do with a box of

[17352]paints because it was easier than to make a man and soon the lamplighter

[17353]would be going his rounds past the presbyterian church grounds and along

[17354]by shady Tritonville avenue where the couples walked and lighting the

[17355]lamp near her window where Reggy Wylie used to turn his freewheel like

[17356]she read in that book The Lamplighter by Miss Cummins, author of Mabel

[17357]Vaughan and other tales. For Gerty had her dreams that no-one knew of.

[17358]She loved to read poetry and when she got a keepsake from Bertha Supple

[17359]of that lovely confession album with the coralpink cover to write her

[17360]thoughts in she laid it in the drawer of her toilettable which, though

[17361]it did not err on the side of luxury, was scrupulously neat and clean.

[17362]It was there she kept her girlish treasure trove, the tortoiseshell

[17363]combs, her child of Mary badge, the whiterose scent, the eyebrowleine,

[17364]her alabaster pouncetbox and the ribbons to change when her things came

[17365]home from the wash and there were some beautiful thoughts written in it

[17366]in violet ink that she bought in Hely’s of Dame Street for she felt

[17367]that she too could write poetry if she could only express herself like

[17368]that poem that appealed to her so deeply that she had copied out of the

[17369]newspaper she found one evening round the potherbs. Art thou real, my

[17370]ideal? it was called by Louis J Walsh, Magherafelt, and after there was

[17371]something about twilight, wilt thou ever? and ofttimes the beauty of

[17372]poetry, so sad in its transient loveliness, had misted her eyes with

[17373]silent tears for she felt that the years were slipping by for her,

[17374]one by one, and but for that one shortcoming she knew she need fear no

[17375]competition and that was an accident coming down Dalkey hill and she

[17376]always tried to conceal it. But it must end, she felt. If she saw that

[17377]magic lure in his eyes there would be no holding back for her. Love

[17378]laughs at locksmiths. She would make the great sacrifice. Her every

[17379]effort would be to share his thoughts. Dearer than the whole world

[17380]would she be to him and gild his days with happiness. There was the

[17381]allimportant question and she was dying to know was he a married man or

[17382]a widower who had lost his wife or some tragedy like the nobleman

[17383]with the foreign name from the land of song had to have her put into a

[17384]madhouse, cruel only to be kind. But even if—what then? Would it make

[17385]a very great difference? From everything in the least indelicate her

[17386]finebred nature instinctively recoiled. She loathed that sort of person,

[17387]the fallen women off the accommodation walk beside the Dodder that went

[17388]with the soldiers and coarse men with no respect for a girl’s honour,

[17389]degrading the sex and being taken up to the police station. No, no:

[17390]not that. They would be just good friends like a big brother and sister

[17391]without all that other in spite of the conventions of Society with a big

[17392]ess. Perhaps it was an old flame he was in mourning for from the days

[17393]beyond recall. She thought she understood. She would try to understand

[17394]him because men were so different. The old love was waiting, waiting

[17395]with little white hands stretched out, with blue appealing eyes. Heart

[17396]of mine! She would follow, her dream of love, the dictates of her heart

[17397]that told her he was her all in all, the only man in all the world for

[17398]her for love was the master guide. Nothing else mattered. Come what

[17399]might she would be wild, untrammelled, free.

[17400]

[17401]Canon O’Hanlon put the Blessed Sacrament back into the tabernacle and

[17402]genuflected and the choir sang Laudate Dominum omnes gentes and then he

[17403]locked the tabernacle door because the benediction was over and Father

[17404]Conroy handed him his hat to put on and crosscat Edy asked wasn’t she

[17405]coming but Jacky Caffrey called out:

[17406]

[17407]—O, look, Cissy!

[17408]

[17409]And they all looked was it sheet lightning but Tommy saw it too over the

[17410]trees beside the church, blue and then green and purple.

[17411]

[17412]—It’s fireworks, Cissy Caffrey said.

[17413]

[17414]And they all ran down the strand to see over the houses and the church,

[17415]helterskelter, Edy with the pushcar with baby Boardman in it and Cissy

[17416]holding Tommy and Jacky by the hand so they wouldn’t fall running.

[17417]

[17418]—Come on, Gerty, Cissy called. It’s the bazaar fireworks.

[17419]

[17420]But Gerty was adamant. She had no intention of being at their beck and

[17421]call. If they could run like rossies she could sit so she said she could

[17422]see from where she was. The eyes that were fastened upon her set her

[17423]pulses tingling. She looked at him a moment, meeting his glance, and

[17424]a light broke in upon her. Whitehot passion was in that face, passion

[17425]silent as the grave, and it had made her his. At last they were left

[17426]alone without the others to pry and pass remarks and she knew he could

[17427]be trusted to the death, steadfast, a sterling man, a man of inflexible

[17428]honour to his fingertips. His hands and face were working and a tremour

[17429]went over her. She leaned back far to look up where the fireworks were

[17430]and she caught her knee in her hands so as not to fall back looking up

[17431]and there was no-one to see only him and her when she revealed all her

[17432]graceful beautifully shaped legs like that, supply soft and delicately

[17433]rounded, and she seemed to hear the panting of his heart, his hoarse

[17434]breathing, because she knew too about the passion of men like that,

[17435]hotblooded, because Bertha Supple told her once in dead secret and made

[17436]her swear she’d never about the gentleman lodger that was staying with

[17437]them out of the Congested Districts Board that had pictures cut out of

[17438]papers of those skirtdancers and highkickers and she said he used to do

[17439]something not very nice that you could imagine sometimes in the bed. But

[17440]this was altogether different from a thing like that because there was

[17441]all the difference because she could almost feel him draw her face to

[17442]his and the first quick hot touch of his handsome lips. Besides there

[17443]was absolution so long as you didn’t do the other thing before being

[17444]married and there ought to be women priests that would understand

[17445]without your telling out and Cissy Caffrey too sometimes had that dreamy

[17446]kind of dreamy look in her eyes so that she too, my dear, and Winny

[17447]Rippingham so mad about actors’ photographs and besides it was on

[17448]account of that other thing coming on the way it did.

[17449]

[17450]And Jacky Caffrey shouted to look, there was another and she leaned back

[17451]and the garters were blue to match on account of the transparent and

[17452]they all saw it and they all shouted to look, look, there it was and

[17453]she leaned back ever so far to see the fireworks and something queer was

[17454]flying through the air, a soft thing, to and fro, dark. And she saw a

[17455]long Roman candle going up over the trees, up, up, and, in the tense

[17456]hush, they were all breathless with excitement as it went higher and

[17457]higher and she had to lean back more and more to look up after it, high,

[17458]high, almost out of sight, and her face was suffused with a divine, an

[17459]entrancing blush from straining back and he could see her other things

[17460]too, nainsook knickers, the fabric that caresses the skin, better than

[17461]those other pettiwidth, the green, four and eleven, on account of being

[17462]white and she let him and she saw that he saw and then it went so high

[17463]it went out of sight a moment and she was trembling in every limb from

[17464]being bent so far back that he had a full view high up above her knee

[17465]where no-one ever not even on the swing or wading and she wasn’t

[17466]ashamed and he wasn’t either to look in that immodest way like that

[17467]because he couldn’t resist the sight of the wondrous revealment half

[17468]offered like those skirtdancers behaving so immodest before gentlemen

[17469]looking and he kept on looking, looking. She would fain have cried to

[17470]him chokingly, held out her snowy slender arms to him to come, to feel

[17471]his lips laid on her white brow, the cry of a young girl’s love, a

[17472]little strangled cry, wrung from her, that cry that has rung through the

[17473]ages. And then a rocket sprang and bang shot blind blank and O! then the

[17474]Roman candle burst and it was like a sigh of O! and everyone cried O! O!

[17475]in raptures and it gushed out of it a stream of rain gold hair threads

[17476]and they shed and ah! they were all greeny dewy stars falling with

[17477]golden, O so lovely, O, soft, sweet, soft!

[17478]

[17479]Then all melted away dewily in the grey air: all was silent. Ah! She

[17480]glanced at him as she bent forward quickly, a pathetic little glance of

[17481]piteous protest, of shy reproach under which he coloured like a girl. He

[17482]was leaning back against the rock behind. Leopold Bloom (for it is he)

[17483]stands silent, with bowed head before those young guileless eyes. What a

[17484]brute he had been! At it again? A fair unsullied soul had called to him

[17485]and, wretch that he was, how had he answered? An utter cad he had been!

[17486]He of all men! But there was an infinite store of mercy in those eyes,

[17487]for him too a word of pardon even though he had erred and sinned and

[17488]wandered. Should a girl tell? No, a thousand times no. That was their

[17489]secret, only theirs, alone in the hiding twilight and there was none to

[17490]know or tell save the little bat that flew so softly through the evening

[17491]to and fro and little bats don’t tell.

[17492]

[17493]Cissy Caffrey whistled, imitating the boys in the football field to show

[17494]what a great person she was: and then she cried:

[17495]

[17496]—Gerty! Gerty! We’re going. Come on. We can see from farther up.

[17497]

[17498]Gerty had an idea, one of love’s little ruses. She slipped a hand

[17499]into her kerchief pocket and took out the wadding and waved in reply of

[17500]course without letting him and then slipped it back. Wonder if he’s

[17501]too far to. She rose. Was it goodbye? No. She had to go but they would

[17502]meet again, there, and she would dream of that till then, tomorrow, of

[17503]her dream of yester eve. She drew herself up to her full height. Their

[17504]souls met in a last lingering glance and the eyes that reached

[17505]her heart, full of a strange shining, hung enraptured on her sweet

[17506]flowerlike face. She half smiled at him wanly, a sweet forgiving smile,

[17507]a smile that verged on tears, and then they parted.

[17508]

[17509]Slowly, without looking back she went down the uneven strand to Cissy,

[17510]to Edy to Jacky and Tommy Caffrey, to little baby Boardman. It was

[17511]darker now and there were stones and bits of wood on the strand and

[17512]slippy seaweed. She walked with a certain quiet dignity characteristic

[17513]of her but with care and very slowly because—because Gerty MacDowell

[17514]was...

[17515]

[17516]Tight boots? No. She’s lame! O!

[17517]

[17518]Mr Bloom watched her as she limped away. Poor girl! That’s why she’s

[17519]left on the shelf and the others did a sprint. Thought something was

[17520]wrong by the cut of her jib. Jilted beauty. A defect is ten times worse

[17521]in a woman. But makes them polite. Glad I didn’t know it when she was

[17522]on show. Hot little devil all the same. I wouldn’t mind. Curiosity

[17523]like a nun or a negress or a girl with glasses. That squinty one is

[17524]delicate. Near her monthlies, I expect, makes them feel ticklish. I have

[17525]such a bad headache today. Where did I put the letter? Yes, all right.

[17526]All kinds of crazy longings. Licking pennies. Girl in Tranquilla convent

[17527]that nun told me liked to smell rock oil. Virgins go mad in the end I

[17528]suppose. Sister? How many women in Dublin have it today? Martha, she.

[17529]Something in the air. That’s the moon. But then why don’t all women

[17530]menstruate at the same time with the same moon, I mean? Depends on the

[17531]time they were born I suppose. Or all start scratch then get out of

[17532]step. Sometimes Molly and Milly together. Anyhow I got the best of that.

[17533]Damned glad I didn’t do it in the bath this morning over her silly I

[17534]will punish you letter. Made up for that tramdriver this morning. That

[17535]gouger M’Coy stopping me to say nothing. And his wife engagement in

[17536]the country valise, voice like a pickaxe. Thankful for small mercies.

[17537]Cheap too. Yours for the asking. Because they want it themselves. Their

[17538]natural craving. Shoals of them every evening poured out of offices.

[17539]Reserve better. Don’t want it they throw it at you. Catch em alive, O.

[17540]Pity they can’t see themselves. A dream of wellfilled hose. Where was

[17541]that? Ah, yes. Mutoscope pictures in Capel street: for men only. Peeping

[17542]Tom. Willy’s hat and what the girls did with it. Do they snapshot

[17543]those girls or is it all a fake? Lingerie does it. Felt for the curves

[17544]inside her déshabillé. Excites them also when they’re. I’m all

[17545]clean come and dirty me. And they like dressing one another for the

[17546]sacrifice. Milly delighted with Molly’s new blouse. At first. Put them

[17547]all on to take them all off. Molly. Why I bought her the violet garters.

[17548]Us too: the tie he wore, his lovely socks and turnedup trousers. He

[17549]wore a pair of gaiters the night that first we met. His lovely shirt was

[17550]shining beneath his what? of jet. Say a woman loses a charm with every

[17551]pin she takes out. Pinned together. O, Mairy lost the pin of her.

[17552]Dressed up to the nines for somebody. Fashion part of their charm. Just

[17553]changes when you’re on the track of the secret. Except the east: Mary,

[17554]Martha: now as then. No reasonable offer refused. She wasn’t in a

[17555]hurry either. Always off to a fellow when they are. They never forget an

[17556]appointment. Out on spec probably. They believe in chance because like

[17557]themselves. And the others inclined to give her an odd dig. Girl friends

[17558]at school, arms round each other’s necks or with ten fingers locked,

[17559]kissing and whispering secrets about nothing in the convent garden. Nuns

[17560]with whitewashed faces, cool coifs and their rosaries going up and down,

[17561]vindictive too for what they can’t get. Barbed wire. Be sure now and

[17562]write to me. And I’ll write to you. Now won’t you? Molly and Josie

[17563]Powell. Till Mr Right comes along, then meet once in a blue moon.

[17564]Tableau! O, look who it is for the love of God! How are you at all? What

[17565]have you been doing with yourself? Kiss and delighted to, kiss, to

[17566]see you. Picking holes in each other’s appearance. You’re looking

[17567]splendid. Sister souls. Showing their teeth at one another. How many

[17568]have you left? Wouldn’t lend each other a pinch of salt.

[17569]

[17570]Ah!

[17571]

[17572]Devils they are when that’s coming on them. Dark devilish appearance.

[17573]Molly often told me feel things a ton weight. Scratch the sole of my

[17574]foot. O that way! O, that’s exquisite! Feel it myself too. Good to

[17575]rest once in a way. Wonder if it’s bad to go with them then. Safe in

[17576]one way. Turns milk, makes fiddlestrings snap. Something about withering

[17577]plants I read in a garden. Besides they say if the flower withers she

[17578]wears she’s a flirt. All are. Daresay she felt I. When you feel like

[17579]that you often meet what you feel. Liked me or what? Dress they look at.

[17580]Always know a fellow courting: collars and cuffs. Well cocks and lions

[17581]do the same and stags. Same time might prefer a tie undone or something.

[17582]Trousers? Suppose I when I was? No. Gently does it. Dislike rough and

[17583]tumble. Kiss in the dark and never tell. Saw something in me. Wonder

[17584]what. Sooner have me as I am than some poet chap with bearsgrease

[17585]plastery hair, lovelock over his dexter optic. To aid gentleman in

[17586]literary. Ought to attend to my appearance my age. Didn’t let her

[17587]see me in profile. Still, you never know. Pretty girls and ugly men

[17588]marrying. Beauty and the beast. Besides I can’t be so if Molly.

[17589]Took off her hat to show her hair. Wide brim. Bought to hide her face,

[17590]meeting someone might know her, bend down or carry a bunch of flowers to

[17591]smell. Hair strong in rut. Ten bob I got for Molly’s combings when we

[17592]were on the rocks in Holles street. Why not? Suppose he gave her money.

[17593]Why not? All a prejudice. She’s worth ten, fifteen, more, a pound.

[17594]What? I think so. All that for nothing. Bold hand: Mrs Marion. Did

[17595]I forget to write address on that letter like the postcard I sent to

[17596]Flynn? And the day I went to Drimmie’s without a necktie. Wrangle

[17597]with Molly it was put me off. No, I remember. Richie Goulding: he’s

[17598]another. Weighs on his mind. Funny my watch stopped at half past four.

[17599]Dust. Shark liver oil they use to clean. Could do it myself. Save. Was

[17600]that just when he, she?

[17601]

[17602]O, he did. Into her. She did. Done.

[17603]

[17604]Ah!

[17605]

[17606]Mr Bloom with careful hand recomposed his wet shirt. O Lord, that little

[17607]limping devil. Begins to feel cold and clammy. Aftereffect not pleasant.

[17608]Still you have to get rid of it someway. They don’t care. Complimented

[17609]perhaps. Go home to nicey bread and milky and say night prayers with the

[17610]kiddies. Well, aren’t they? See her as she is spoil all. Must have the

[17611]stage setting, the rouge, costume, position, music. The name too. Amours

[17612]of actresses. Nell Gwynn, Mrs Bracegirdle, Maud Branscombe. Curtain

[17613]up. Moonlight silver effulgence. Maiden discovered with pensive bosom.

[17614]Little sweetheart come and kiss me. Still, I feel. The strength it gives

[17615]a man. That’s the secret of it. Good job I let off there behind the

[17616]wall coming out of Dignam’s. Cider that was. Otherwise I couldn’t

[17617]have. Makes you want to sing after. Lacaus esant taratara. Suppose I

[17618]spoke to her. What about? Bad plan however if you don’t know how to

[17619]end the conversation. Ask them a question they ask you another.

[17620]Good idea if you’re stuck. Gain time. But then you’re in a cart.

[17621]Wonderful of course if you say: good evening, and you see she’s on

[17622]for it: good evening. O but the dark evening in the Appian way I nearly

[17623]spoke to Mrs Clinch O thinking she was. Whew! Girl in Meath street that

[17624]night. All the dirty things I made her say. All wrong of course. My

[17625]arks she called it. It’s so hard to find one who. Aho! If you don’t

[17626]answer when they solicit must be horrible for them till they harden. And

[17627]kissed my hand when I gave her the extra two shillings. Parrots. Press

[17628]the button and the bird will squeak. Wish she hadn’t called me sir.

[17629]O, her mouth in the dark! And you a married man with a single girl!

[17630]That’s what they enjoy. Taking a man from another woman. Or even hear

[17631]of it. Different with me. Glad to get away from other chap’s wife.

[17632]Eating off his cold plate. Chap in the Burton today spitting back

[17633]gumchewed gristle. French letter still in my pocketbook. Cause of half

[17634]the trouble. But might happen sometime, I don’t think. Come in, all is

[17635]prepared. I dreamt. What? Worst is beginning. How they change the venue

[17636]when it’s not what they like. Ask you do you like mushrooms because

[17637]she once knew a gentleman who. Or ask you what someone was going to say

[17638]when he changed his mind and stopped. Yet if I went the whole hog, say:

[17639]I want to, something like that. Because I did. She too. Offend her.

[17640]Then make it up. Pretend to want something awfully, then cry off for her

[17641]sake. Flatters them. She must have been thinking of someone else all the

[17642]time. What harm? Must since she came to the use of reason, he, he and

[17643]he. First kiss does the trick. The propitious moment. Something inside

[17644]them goes pop. Mushy like, tell by their eye, on the sly. First thoughts

[17645]are best. Remember that till their dying day. Molly, lieutenant Mulvey

[17646]that kissed her under the Moorish wall beside the gardens. Fifteen

[17647]she told me. But her breasts were developed. Fell asleep then. After

[17648]Glencree dinner that was when we drove home. Featherbed mountain.

[17649]Gnashing her teeth in sleep. Lord mayor had his eye on her too. Val

[17650]Dillon. Apoplectic.

[17651]

[17652]There she is with them down there for the fireworks. My fireworks. Up

[17653]like a rocket, down like a stick. And the children, twins they must

[17654]be, waiting for something to happen. Want to be grownups. Dressing in

[17655]mother’s clothes. Time enough, understand all the ways of the world.

[17656]And the dark one with the mop head and the nigger mouth. I knew she

[17657]could whistle. Mouth made for that. Like Molly. Why that highclass whore

[17658]in Jammet’s wore her veil only to her nose. Would you mind, please,

[17659]telling me the right time? I’ll tell you the right time up a dark

[17660]lane. Say prunes and prisms forty times every morning, cure for fat

[17661]lips. Caressing the little boy too. Onlookers see most of the game. Of

[17662]course they understand birds, animals, babies. In their line.

[17663]

[17664]Didn’t look back when she was going down the strand. Wouldn’t give

[17665]that satisfaction. Those girls, those girls, those lovely seaside girls.

[17666]Fine eyes she had, clear. It’s the white of the eye brings that out

[17667]not so much the pupil. Did she know what I? Course. Like a cat sitting

[17668]beyond a dog’s jump. Women never meet one like that Wilkins in the

[17669]high school drawing a picture of Venus with all his belongings on show.

[17670]Call that innocence? Poor idiot! His wife has her work cut out for her.

[17671]Never see them sit on a bench marked Wet Paint. Eyes all over them. Look

[17672]under the bed for what’s not there. Longing to get the fright of their

[17673]lives. Sharp as needles they are. When I said to Molly the man at the

[17674]corner of Cuffe street was goodlooking, thought she might like, twigged

[17675]at once he had a false arm. Had, too. Where do they get that?

[17676]Typist going up Roger Greene’s stairs two at a time to show her

[17677]understandings. Handed down from father to, mother to daughter, I mean.

[17678]Bred in the bone. Milly for example drying her handkerchief on the

[17679]mirror to save the ironing. Best place for an ad to catch a woman’s

[17680]eye on a mirror. And when I sent her for Molly’s Paisley shawl to

[17681]Prescott’s by the way that ad I must, carrying home the change in her

[17682]stocking! Clever little minx. I never told her. Neat way she carries

[17683]parcels too. Attract men, small thing like that. Holding up her hand,

[17684]shaking it, to let the blood flow back when it was red. Who did you

[17685]learn that from? Nobody. Something the nurse taught me. O, don’t they

[17686]know! Three years old she was in front of Molly’s dressingtable, just

[17687]before we left Lombard street west. Me have a nice pace. Mullingar. Who

[17688]knows? Ways of the world. Young student. Straight on her pins anyway not

[17689]like the other. Still she was game. Lord, I am wet. Devil you are. Swell

[17690]of her calf. Transparent stockings, stretched to breaking point. Not

[17691]like that frump today. A. E. Rumpled stockings. Or the one in Grafton

[17692]street. White. Wow! Beef to the heel.

[17693]

[17694]A monkey puzzle rocket burst, spluttering in darting crackles. Zrads and

[17695]zrads, zrads, zrads. And Cissy and Tommy and Jacky ran out to see and

[17696]Edy after with the pushcar and then Gerty beyond the curve of the rocks.

[17697]Will she? Watch! Watch! See! Looked round. She smelt an onion. Darling,

[17698]I saw, your. I saw all.

[17699]

[17700]Lord!

[17701]

[17702]Did me good all the same. Off colour after Kiernan’s, Dignam’s. For

[17703]this relief much thanks. In Hamlet, that is. Lord! It was all things

[17704]combined. Excitement. When she leaned back, felt an ache at the butt of

[17705]my tongue. Your head it simply swirls. He’s right. Might have made a

[17706]worse fool of myself however. Instead of talking about nothing. Then

[17707]I will tell you all. Still it was a kind of language between us. It

[17708]couldn’t be? No, Gerty they called her. Might be false name however

[17709]like my name and the address Dolphin’s barn a blind.

[17710]

[17711] Her maiden name was Jemina Brown

[17712] And she lived with her mother in Irishtown.

[17713]Place made me think of that I suppose. All tarred with the same brush.

[17714]Wiping pens in their stockings. But the ball rolled down to her as if

[17715]it understood. Every bullet has its billet. Course I never could throw

[17716]anything straight at school. Crooked as a ram’s horn. Sad however

[17717]because it lasts only a few years till they settle down to potwalloping

[17718]and papa’s pants will soon fit Willy and fuller’s earth for the baby

[17719]when they hold him out to do ah ah. No soft job. Saves them. Keeps them

[17720]out of harm’s way. Nature. Washing child, washing corpse. Dignam.

[17721]Children’s hands always round them. Cocoanut skulls, monkeys, not

[17722]even closed at first, sour milk in their swaddles and tainted curds.

[17723]Oughtn’t to have given that child an empty teat to suck. Fill it up

[17724]with wind. Mrs Beaufoy, Purefoy. Must call to the hospital. Wonder is

[17725]nurse Callan there still. She used to look over some nights when Molly

[17726]was in the Coffee Palace. That young doctor O’Hare I noticed her

[17727]brushing his coat. And Mrs Breen and Mrs Dignam once like that too,

[17728]marriageable. Worst of all at night Mrs Duggan told me in the City Arms.

[17729]Husband rolling in drunk, stink of pub off him like a polecat. Have that

[17730]in your nose in the dark, whiff of stale boose. Then ask in the morning:

[17731]was I drunk last night? Bad policy however to fault the husband.

[17732]Chickens come home to roost. They stick by one another like glue. Maybe

[17733]the women’s fault also. That’s where Molly can knock spots off them.

[17734]It’s the blood of the south. Moorish. Also the form, the figure.

[17735]Hands felt for the opulent. Just compare for instance those others. Wife

[17736]locked up at home, skeleton in the cupboard. Allow me to introduce my.

[17737]Then they trot you out some kind of a nondescript, wouldn’t know

[17738]what to call her. Always see a fellow’s weak point in his wife. Still

[17739]there’s destiny in it, falling in love. Have their own secrets between

[17740]them. Chaps that would go to the dogs if some woman didn’t take them

[17741]in hand. Then little chits of girls, height of a shilling in coppers,

[17742]with little hubbies. As God made them he matched them. Sometimes

[17743]children turn out well enough. Twice nought makes one. Or old rich chap

[17744]of seventy and blushing bride. Marry in May and repent in December. This

[17745]wet is very unpleasant. Stuck. Well the foreskin is not back. Better

[17746]detach.

[17747]

[17748]Ow!

[17749]

[17750]Other hand a sixfooter with a wifey up to his watchpocket. Long and

[17751]the short of it. Big he and little she. Very strange about my watch.

[17752]Wristwatches are always going wrong. Wonder is there any magnetic

[17753]influence between the person because that was about the time he. Yes, I

[17754]suppose, at once. Cat’s away, the mice will play. I remember looking

[17755]in Pill lane. Also that now is magnetism. Back of everything magnetism.

[17756]Earth for instance pulling this and being pulled. That causes movement.

[17757]And time, well that’s the time the movement takes. Then if one thing

[17758]stopped the whole ghesabo would stop bit by bit. Because it’s all

[17759]arranged. Magnetic needle tells you what’s going on in the sun, the

[17760]stars. Little piece of steel iron. When you hold out the fork. Come.

[17761]Come. Tip. Woman and man that is. Fork and steel. Molly, he. Dress

[17762]up and look and suggest and let you see and see more and defy you if

[17763]you’re a man to see that and, like a sneeze coming, legs, look, look

[17764]and if you have any guts in you. Tip. Have to let fly.

[17765]

[17766]Wonder how is she feeling in that region. Shame all put on before third

[17767]person. More put out about a hole in her stocking. Molly, her underjaw

[17768]stuck out, head back, about the farmer in the ridingboots and spurs at

[17769]the horse show. And when the painters were in Lombard street west.

[17770]Fine voice that fellow had. How Giuglini began. Smell that I did. Like

[17771]flowers. It was too. Violets. Came from the turpentine probably in the

[17772]paint. Make their own use of everything. Same time doing it scraped her

[17773]slipper on the floor so they wouldn’t hear. But lots of them can’t

[17774]kick the beam, I think. Keep that thing up for hours. Kind of a general

[17775]all round over me and half down my back.

[17776]

[17777]Wait. Hm. Hm. Yes. That’s her perfume. Why she waved her hand. I leave

[17778]you this to think of me when I’m far away on the pillow. What is it?

[17779]Heliotrope? No. Hyacinth? Hm. Roses, I think. She’d like scent of that

[17780]kind. Sweet and cheap: soon sour. Why Molly likes opoponax. Suits her,

[17781]with a little jessamine mixed. Her high notes and her low notes. At the

[17782]dance night she met him, dance of the hours. Heat brought it out. She

[17783]was wearing her black and it had the perfume of the time before. Good

[17784]conductor, is it? Or bad? Light too. Suppose there’s some connection.

[17785]For instance if you go into a cellar where it’s dark. Mysterious thing

[17786]too. Why did I smell it only now? Took its time in coming like herself,

[17787]slow but sure. Suppose it’s ever so many millions of tiny grains

[17788]blown across. Yes, it is. Because those spice islands, Cinghalese this

[17789]morning, smell them leagues off. Tell you what it is. It’s like a fine

[17790]fine veil or web they have all over the skin, fine like what do you

[17791]call it gossamer, and they’re always spinning it out of them, fine as

[17792]anything, like rainbow colours without knowing it. Clings to everything

[17793]she takes off. Vamp of her stockings. Warm shoe. Stays. Drawers: little

[17794]kick, taking them off. Byby till next time. Also the cat likes to sniff

[17795]in her shift on the bed. Know her smell in a thousand. Bathwater too.

[17796]Reminds me of strawberries and cream. Wonder where it is really. There

[17797]or the armpits or under the neck. Because you get it out of all holes

[17798]and corners. Hyacinth perfume made of oil of ether or something.

[17799]Muskrat. Bag under their tails. One grain pour off odour for years. Dogs

[17800]at each other behind. Good evening. Evening. How do you sniff? Hm. Hm.

[17801]Very well, thank you. Animals go by that. Yes now, look at it that way.

[17802]We’re the same. Some women, instance, warn you off when they have

[17803]their period. Come near. Then get a hogo you could hang your hat on.

[17804]Like what? Potted herrings gone stale or. Boof! Please keep off the

[17805]grass.

[17806]

[17807]Perhaps they get a man smell off us. What though? Cigary gloves long

[17808]John had on his desk the other day. Breath? What you eat and drink gives

[17809]that. No. Mansmell, I mean. Must be connected with that because priests

[17810]that are supposed to be are different. Women buzz round it like flies

[17811]round treacle. Railed off the altar get on to it at any cost. The tree

[17812]of forbidden priest. O, father, will you? Let me be the first to. That

[17813]diffuses itself all through the body, permeates. Source of life. And

[17814]it’s extremely curious the smell. Celery sauce. Let me.

[17815]

[17816]Mr Bloom inserted his nose. Hm. Into the. Hm. Opening of his waistcoat.

[17817]Almonds or. No. Lemons it is. Ah no, that’s the soap.

[17818]

[17819]O by the by that lotion. I knew there was something on my mind. Never

[17820]went back and the soap not paid. Dislike carrying bottles like that hag

[17821]this morning. Hynes might have paid me that three shillings. I

[17822]could mention Meagher’s just to remind him. Still if he works that

[17823]paragraph. Two and nine. Bad opinion of me he’ll have. Call tomorrow.

[17824]How much do I owe you? Three and nine? Two and nine, sir. Ah. Might stop

[17825]him giving credit another time. Lose your customers that way. Pubs do.

[17826]Fellows run up a bill on the slate and then slinking around the back

[17827]streets into somewhere else.

[17828]

[17829]Here’s this nobleman passed before. Blown in from the bay. Just went

[17830]as far as turn back. Always at home at dinnertime. Looks mangled out:

[17831]had a good tuck in. Enjoying nature now. Grace after meals. After supper

[17832]walk a mile. Sure he has a small bank balance somewhere, government sit.

[17833]Walk after him now make him awkward like those newsboys me today. Still

[17834]you learn something. See ourselves as others see us. So long as women

[17835]don’t mock what matter? That’s the way to find out. Ask yourself

[17836]who is he now. The Mystery Man on the Beach, prize titbit story by Mr

[17837]Leopold Bloom. Payment at the rate of one guinea per column. And that

[17838]fellow today at the graveside in the brown macintosh. Corns on his

[17839]kismet however. Healthy perhaps absorb all the. Whistle brings rain they

[17840]say. Must be some somewhere. Salt in the Ormond damp. The body feels

[17841]the atmosphere. Old Betty’s joints are on the rack. Mother Shipton’s

[17842]prophecy that is about ships around they fly in the twinkling. No. Signs

[17843]of rain it is. The royal reader. And distant hills seem coming nigh.

[17844]

[17845]Howth. Bailey light. Two, four, six, eight, nine. See. Has to change or

[17846]they might think it a house. Wreckers. Grace Darling. People afraid of

[17847]the dark. Also glowworms, cyclists: lightingup time. Jewels diamonds

[17848]flash better. Women. Light is a kind of reassuring. Not going to hurt

[17849]you. Better now of course than long ago. Country roads. Run you through

[17850]the small guts for nothing. Still two types there are you bob against.

[17851]Scowl or smile. Pardon! Not at all. Best time to spray plants too in

[17852]the shade after the sun. Some light still. Red rays are longest. Roygbiv

[17853]Vance taught us: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. A

[17854]star I see. Venus? Can’t tell yet. Two. When three it’s night. Were

[17855]those nightclouds there all the time? Looks like a phantom ship. No.

[17856]Wait. Trees are they? An optical illusion. Mirage. Land of the setting

[17857]sun this. Homerule sun setting in the southeast. My native land,

[17858]goodnight.

[17859]

[17860]Dew falling. Bad for you, dear, to sit on that stone. Brings on white

[17861]fluxions. Never have little baby then less he was big strong fight his

[17862]way up through. Might get piles myself. Sticks too like a summer cold,

[17863]sore on the mouth. Cut with grass or paper worst. Friction of the

[17864]position. Like to be that rock she sat on. O sweet little, you don’t

[17865]know how nice you looked. I begin to like them at that age. Green

[17866]apples. Grab at all that offer. Suppose it’s the only time we cross

[17867]legs, seated. Also the library today: those girl graduates. Happy chairs

[17868]under them. But it’s the evening influence. They feel all that. Open

[17869]like flowers, know their hours, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, in

[17870]ballrooms, chandeliers, avenues under the lamps. Nightstock in Mat

[17871]Dillon’s garden where I kissed her shoulder. Wish I had a full length

[17872]oilpainting of her then. June that was too I wooed. The year returns.

[17873]History repeats itself. Ye crags and peaks I’m with you once again.

[17874]Life, love, voyage round your own little world. And now? Sad about her

[17875]lame of course but must be on your guard not to feel too much pity. They

[17876]take advantage.

[17877]

[17878]All quiet on Howth now. The distant hills seem. Where we. The

[17879]rhododendrons. I am a fool perhaps. He gets the plums, and I the

[17880]plumstones. Where I come in. All that old hill has seen. Names change:

[17881]that’s all. Lovers: yum yum.

[17882]

[17883]Tired I feel now. Will I get up? O wait. Drained all the manhood out of

[17884]me, little wretch. She kissed me. Never again. My youth. Only once it

[17885]comes. Or hers. Take the train there tomorrow. No. Returning not the

[17886]same. Like kids your second visit to a house. The new I want. Nothing

[17887]new under the sun. Care of P. O. Dolphin’s Barn. Are you not happy in

[17888]your? Naughty darling. At Dolphin’s barn charades in Luke Doyle’s

[17889]house. Mat Dillon and his bevy of daughters: Tiny, Atty, Floey, Maimy,

[17890]Louy, Hetty. Molly too. Eightyseven that was. Year before we. And the

[17891]old major, partial to his drop of spirits. Curious she an only child,

[17892]I an only child. So it returns. Think you’re escaping and run into

[17893]yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home. And just when he

[17894]and she. Circus horse walking in a ring. Rip van Winkle we played. Rip:

[17895]tear in Henny Doyle’s overcoat. Van: breadvan delivering. Winkle:

[17896]cockles and periwinkles. Then I did Rip van Winkle coming back. She

[17897]leaned on the sideboard watching. Moorish eyes. Twenty years asleep in

[17898]Sleepy Hollow. All changed. Forgotten. The young are old. His gun rusty

[17899]from the dew.

[17900]

[17901]Ba. What is that flying about? Swallow? Bat probably. Thinks I’m a

[17902]tree, so blind. Have birds no smell? Metempsychosis. They believed you

[17903]could be changed into a tree from grief. Weeping willow. Ba. There he

[17904]goes. Funny little beggar. Wonder where he lives. Belfry up there. Very

[17905]likely. Hanging by his heels in the odour of sanctity. Bell scared him

[17906]out, I suppose. Mass seems to be over. Could hear them all at it. Pray

[17907]for us. And pray for us. And pray for us. Good idea the repetition. Same

[17908]thing with ads. Buy from us. And buy from us. Yes, there’s the light

[17909]in the priest’s house. Their frugal meal. Remember about the mistake

[17910]in the valuation when I was in Thom’s. Twentyeight it is. Two houses

[17911]they have. Gabriel Conroy’s brother is curate. Ba. Again. Wonder why

[17912]they come out at night like mice. They’re a mixed breed. Birds are

[17913]like hopping mice. What frightens them, light or noise? Better sit

[17914]still. All instinct like the bird in drouth got water out of the end of

[17915]a jar by throwing in pebbles. Like a little man in a cloak he is with

[17916]tiny hands. Weeny bones. Almost see them shimmering, kind of a bluey

[17917]white. Colours depend on the light you see. Stare the sun for example

[17918]like the eagle then look at a shoe see a blotch blob yellowish. Wants

[17919]to stamp his trademark on everything. Instance, that cat this morning on

[17920]the staircase. Colour of brown turf. Say you never see them with three

[17921]colours. Not true. That half tabbywhite tortoiseshell in the City Arms

[17922]with the letter em on her forehead. Body fifty different colours.

[17923]Howth a while ago amethyst. Glass flashing. That’s how that wise man

[17924]what’s his name with the burning glass. Then the heather goes on fire.

[17925]It can’t be tourists’ matches. What? Perhaps the sticks dry rub

[17926]together in the wind and light. Or broken bottles in the furze act as

[17927]a burning glass in the sun. Archimedes. I have it! My memory’s not so

[17928]bad.

[17929]

[17930]Ba. Who knows what they’re always flying for. Insects? That bee last

[17931]week got into the room playing with his shadow on the ceiling. Might

[17932]be the one bit me, come back to see. Birds too. Never find out. Or what

[17933]they say. Like our small talk. And says she and says he. Nerve they have

[17934]to fly over the ocean and back. Lots must be killed in storms, telegraph

[17935]wires. Dreadful life sailors have too. Big brutes of oceangoing steamers

[17936]floundering along in the dark, lowing out like seacows. Faugh a

[17937]ballagh! Out of that, bloody curse to you! Others in vessels, bit of a

[17938]handkerchief sail, pitched about like snuff at a wake when the stormy

[17939]winds do blow. Married too. Sometimes away for years at the ends of the

[17940]earth somewhere. No ends really because it’s round. Wife in every port

[17941]they say. She has a good job if she minds it till Johnny comes marching

[17942]home again. If ever he does. Smelling the tail end of ports. How can

[17943]they like the sea? Yet they do. The anchor’s weighed. Off he sails

[17944]with a scapular or a medal on him for luck. Well. And the tephilim

[17945]no what’s this they call it poor papa’s father had on his door to

[17946]touch. That brought us out of the land of Egypt and into the house of

[17947]bondage. Something in all those superstitions because when you go out

[17948]never know what dangers. Hanging on to a plank or astride of a beam for

[17949]grim life, lifebelt round him, gulping salt water, and that’s the last

[17950]of his nibs till the sharks catch hold of him. Do fish ever get seasick?

[17951]

[17952]Then you have a beautiful calm without a cloud, smooth sea, placid, crew

[17953]and cargo in smithereens, Davy Jones’ locker, moon looking down so

[17954]peaceful. Not my fault, old cockalorum.

[17955]

[17956]A last lonely candle wandered up the sky from Mirus bazaar in search of

[17957]funds for Mercer’s hospital and broke, drooping, and shed a cluster

[17958]of violet but one white stars. They floated, fell: they faded. The

[17959]shepherd’s hour: the hour of folding: hour of tryst. From house to

[17960]house, giving his everwelcome double knock, went the nine o’clock

[17961]postman, the glowworm’s lamp at his belt gleaming here and there

[17962]through the laurel hedges. And among the five young trees a hoisted

[17963]lintstock lit the lamp at Leahy’s terrace. By screens of lighted

[17964]windows, by equal gardens a shrill voice went crying, wailing: Evening

[17965]Telegraph, stop press edition! Result of the Gold Cup races! and from

[17966]the door of Dignam’s house a boy ran out and called. Twittering the

[17967]bat flew here, flew there. Far out over the sands the coming surf

[17968]crept, grey. Howth settled for slumber, tired of long days, of yumyum

[17969]rhododendrons (he was old) and felt gladly the night breeze lift, ruffle

[17970]his fell of ferns. He lay but opened a red eye unsleeping, deep and

[17971]slowly breathing, slumberous but awake. And far on Kish bank the

[17972]anchored lightship twinkled, winked at Mr Bloom.

[17973]

[17974]Life those chaps out there must have, stuck in the same spot. Irish

[17975]Lights board. Penance for their sins. Coastguards too. Rocket and

[17976]breeches buoy and lifeboat. Day we went out for the pleasure cruise in

[17977]the Erin’s King, throwing them the sack of old papers. Bears in

[17978]the zoo. Filthy trip. Drunkards out to shake up their livers. Puking

[17979]overboard to feed the herrings. Nausea. And the women, fear of God in

[17980]their faces. Milly, no sign of funk. Her blue scarf loose, laughing.

[17981]Don’t know what death is at that age. And then their stomachs clean.

[17982]But being lost they fear. When we hid behind the tree at Crumlin. I

[17983]didn’t want to. Mamma! Mamma! Babes in the wood. Frightening them with

[17984]masks too. Throwing them up in the air to catch them. I’ll murder you.

[17985]Is it only half fun? Or children playing battle. Whole earnest. How can

[17986]people aim guns at each other. Sometimes they go off. Poor kids! Only

[17987]troubles wildfire and nettlerash. Calomel purge I got her for that.

[17988]After getting better asleep with Molly. Very same teeth she has. What do

[17989]they love? Another themselves? But the morning she chased her with the

[17990]umbrella. Perhaps so as not to hurt. I felt her pulse. Ticking. Little

[17991]hand it was: now big. Dearest Papli. All that the hand says when you

[17992]touch. Loved to count my waistcoat buttons. Her first stays I remember.

[17993]Made me laugh to see. Little paps to begin with. Left one is more

[17994]sensitive, I think. Mine too. Nearer the heart? Padding themselves out

[17995]if fat is in fashion. Her growing pains at night, calling, wakening

[17996]me. Frightened she was when her nature came on her first. Poor child!

[17997]Strange moment for the mother too. Brings back her girlhood. Gibraltar.

[17998]Looking from Buena Vista. O’Hara’s tower. The seabirds screaming.

[17999]Old Barbary ape that gobbled all his family. Sundown, gunfire for the

[18000]men to cross the lines. Looking out over the sea she told me. Evening

[18001]like this, but clear, no clouds. I always thought I’d marry a lord or

[18002]a rich gentleman coming with a private yacht. Buenas noches, señorita.

[18003]El hombre ama la muchacha hermosa. Why me? Because you were so foreign

[18004]from the others.

[18005]

[18006]Better not stick here all night like a limpet. This weather makes you

[18007]dull. Must be getting on for nine by the light. Go home. Too late for

[18008]Leah, Lily of Killarney. No. Might be still up. Call to the hospital to

[18009]see. Hope she’s over. Long day I’ve had. Martha, the bath, funeral,

[18010]house of Keyes, museum with those goddesses, Dedalus’ song. Then that

[18011]bawler in Barney Kiernan’s. Got my own back there. Drunken ranters

[18012]what I said about his God made him wince. Mistake to hit back. Or? No.

[18013]Ought to go home and laugh at themselves. Always want to be swilling in

[18014]company. Afraid to be alone like a child of two. Suppose he hit me. Look

[18015]at it other way round. Not so bad then. Perhaps not to hurt he meant.

[18016]Three cheers for Israel. Three cheers for the sister-in-law he hawked

[18017]about, three fangs in her mouth. Same style of beauty. Particularly nice

[18018]old party for a cup of tea. The sister of the wife of the wild man of

[18019]Borneo has just come to town. Imagine that in the early morning at close

[18020]range. Everyone to his taste as Morris said when he kissed the cow. But

[18021]Dignam’s put the boots on it. Houses of mourning so depressing because

[18022]you never know. Anyhow she wants the money. Must call to those Scottish

[18023]Widows as I promised. Strange name. Takes it for granted we’re going

[18024]to pop off first. That widow on Monday was it outside Cramer’s that

[18025]looked at me. Buried the poor husband but progressing favourably on the

[18026]premium. Her widow’s mite. Well? What do you expect her to do? Must

[18027]wheedle her way along. Widower I hate to see. Looks so forlorn. Poor man

[18028]O’Connor wife and five children poisoned by mussels here. The sewage.

[18029]Hopeless. Some good matronly woman in a porkpie hat to mother him. Take

[18030]him in tow, platter face and a large apron. Ladies’ grey flannelette

[18031]bloomers, three shillings a pair, astonishing bargain. Plain and loved,

[18032]loved for ever, they say. Ugly: no woman thinks she is. Love, lie and be

[18033]handsome for tomorrow we die. See him sometimes walking about trying to

[18034]find out who played the trick. U. p: up. Fate that is. He, not me. Also

[18035]a shop often noticed. Curse seems to dog it. Dreamt last night? Wait.

[18036]Something confused. She had red slippers on. Turkish. Wore the breeches.

[18037]Suppose she does? Would I like her in pyjamas? Damned hard to answer.

[18038]Nannetti’s gone. Mailboat. Near Holyhead by now. Must nail that ad

[18039]of Keyes’s. Work Hynes and Crawford. Petticoats for Molly. She has

[18040]something to put in them. What’s that? Might be money.

[18041]

[18042]Mr Bloom stooped and turned over a piece of paper on the strand. He

[18043]brought it near his eyes and peered. Letter? No. Can’t read. Better

[18044]go. Better. I’m tired to move. Page of an old copybook. All those

[18045]holes and pebbles. Who could count them? Never know what you find.

[18046]Bottle with story of a treasure in it, thrown from a wreck. Parcels

[18047]post. Children always want to throw things in the sea. Trust? Bread cast

[18048]on the waters. What’s this? Bit of stick.

[18049]

[18050]O! Exhausted that female has me. Not so young now. Will she come here

[18051]tomorrow? Wait for her somewhere for ever. Must come back. Murderers do.

[18052]Will I?

[18053]

[18054]Mr Bloom with his stick gently vexed the thick sand at his foot. Write a

[18055]message for her. Might remain. What?

[18056]

[18057]I.

[18058]

[18059]Some flatfoot tramp on it in the morning. Useless. Washed away. Tide

[18060]comes here. Saw a pool near her foot. Bend, see my face there, dark

[18061]mirror, breathe on it, stirs. All these rocks with lines and scars and

[18062]letters. O, those transparent! Besides they don’t know. What is the

[18063]meaning of that other world. I called you naughty boy because I do not

[18064]like.

[18065]

[18066]AM. A.

[18067]

[18068]No room. Let it go.

[18069]

[18070]Mr Bloom effaced the letters with his slow boot. Hopeless thing sand.

[18071]Nothing grows in it. All fades. No fear of big vessels coming up here.

[18072]Except Guinness’s barges. Round the Kish in eighty days. Done half by

[18073]design.

[18074]

[18075]He flung his wooden pen away. The stick fell in silted sand, stuck. Now

[18076]if you were trying to do that for a week on end you couldn’t. Chance.

[18077]We’ll never meet again. But it was lovely. Goodbye, dear. Thanks. Made

[18078]me feel so young.

[18079]

[18080]Short snooze now if I had. Must be near nine. Liverpool boat long gone.

[18081]Not even the smoke. And she can do the other. Did too. And Belfast. I

[18082]won’t go. Race there, race back to Ennis. Let him. Just close my eyes

[18083]a moment. Won’t sleep, though. Half dream. It never comes the same.

[18084]Bat again. No harm in him. Just a few.

[18085]

[18086]O sweety all your little girlwhite up I saw dirty bracegirdle made me do

[18087]love sticky we two naughty Grace darling she him half past the bed met

[18088]him pike hoses frillies for Raoul de perfume your wife black hair heave

[18089]under embon señorita young eyes Mulvey plump bubs me breadvan Winkle

[18090]red slippers she rusty sleep wander years of dreams return tail end

[18091]Agendath swoony lovey showed me her next year in drawers return next in

[18092]her next her next.

[18093]

[18094]A bat flew. Here. There. Here. Far in the grey a bell chimed. Mr Bloom

[18095]with open mouth, his left boot sanded sideways, leaned, breathed. Just

[18096]for a few

[18097]

[18098] Cuckoo

[18099] Cuckoo

[18100] Cuckoo.

[18101]The clock on the mantelpiece in the priest’s house cooed where Canon

[18102]O’Hanlon and Father Conroy and the reverend John Hughes S. J. were

[18103]taking tea and sodabread and butter and fried mutton chops with catsup

[18104]and talking about

[18105]

[18106] Cuckoo

[18107] Cuckoo

[18108] Cuckoo.

[18109]Because it was a little canarybird that came out of its little house

[18110]to tell the time that Gerty MacDowell noticed the time she was there

[18111]because she was as quick as anything about a thing like that, was Gerty

[18112]MacDowell, and she noticed at once that that foreign gentleman that was

[18113]sitting on the rocks looking was

[18114]

[18115] Cuckoo

[18116] Cuckoo

[18117] Cuckoo.

[18118]

[18119]

[18120]

[18121]

[18122]

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13. Nausicaa