Fiction

Ulysses

James Joyce

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theyre all so different Boylan talking about the shape of my foot he
noticed at once even before he was introduced when I was in the D B C
with Poldy laughing and trying to listen I was waggling my foot we both
ordered 2 teas and plain bread and butter I saw him looking with his two
old maids of sisters when I stood up and asked the girl where it was what
do I care with it dropping out of me and that black closed breeches he
made me buy takes you half an hour to let them down wetting all myself
always with some brandnew fad every other week such a long one I did I
forgot my suede gloves on the seat behind that I never got after some
robber of a woman and he wanted me to put it in the Irish times lost in
the ladies lavatory D B C Dame street finder return to Mrs Marion Bloom
and I saw his eyes on my feet going out through the turning door he was
looking when I looked back and I went there for tea 2 days after in the
hope but he wasnt now how did that excite him because I was crossing them
when we were in the other room first he meant the shoes that are too
tight to walk in my hand is nice like that if I only had a ring with the
stone for my month a nice aquamarine Ill stick him for one and a gold
bracelet I dont like my foot so much still I made him spend once with my
foot the night after Goodwins botchup of a concert so cold and windy it
was well we had that rum in the house to mull and the fire wasnt black
out when he asked to take off my stockings lying on the hearthrug in
Lombard street west and another time it was my muddy boots hed like me to
walk in all the horses dung I could find but of course hes not natural
like the rest of the world that I what did he say I could give 9 points
in 10 to Katty Lanner and beat her what does that mean I asked him I
forget what he said because the stoppress edition just passed and the man
with the curly hair in the Lucan dairy thats so polite I think I saw his
face before somewhere I noticed him when I was tasting the butter so I
took my time Bartell dArcy too that he used to make fun of when he
commenced kissing me on the choir stairs after I sang Gounods AVE MARIA
what are we waiting for O my heart kiss me straight on the brow and part
which is my brown part he was pretty hot for all his tinny voice too my
low notes he was always raving about if you can believe him I liked the
way he used his mouth singing then he said wasnt it terrible to do that
there in a place like that I dont see anything so terrible about it Ill
tell him about that some day not now and surprise him ay and Ill take him
there and show him the very place too we did it so now there you are like
it or lump it he thinks nothing can happen without him knowing he hadnt
an idea about my mother till we were engaged otherwise hed never have got
me so cheap as he did he was 10 times worse himself anyhow begging me to
give him a tiny bit cut off my drawers that was the evening coming along
Kenilworth square he kissed me in the eye of my glove and I had to take
it off asking me questions is it permitted to enquire the shape of my
bedroom so I let him keep it as if I forgot it to think of me when I saw
him slip it into his pocket of course hes mad on the subject of drawers
thats plain to be seen always skeezing at those brazenfaced things on the
bicycles with their skirts blowing up to their navels even when Milly and
I were out with him at the open air fete that one in the cream muslin
standing right against the sun so he could see every atom she had on when
he saw me from behind following in the rain I saw him before he saw me
however standing at the corner of the Harolds cross road with a new
raincoat on him with the muffler in the Zingari colours to show off his
complexion and the brown hat looking slyboots as usual what was he doing
there where hed no business they can go and get whatever they like from
anything at all with a skirt on it and were not to ask any questions but
they want to know where were you where are you going I could feel him
coming along skulking after me his eyes on my neck he had been keeping
away from the house he felt it was getting too warm for him so I
halfturned and stopped then he pestered me to say yes till I took off my
glove slowly watching him he said my openwork sleeves were too cold for
the rain anything for an excuse to put his hand anear me drawers drawers
the whole blessed time till I promised to give him the pair off my doll
to carry about in his waistcoat pocket O MARIA SANTISIMA he did look a
big fool dreeping in the rain splendid set of teeth he had made me hungry
to look at them and beseeched of me to lift the orange petticoat I had on
with the sunray pleats that there was nobody he said hed kneel down in
the wet if I didnt so persevering he would too and ruin his new raincoat
you never know what freak theyd take alone with you theyre so savage for
it if anyone was passing so I lifted them a bit and touched his trousers
outside the way I used to Gardner after with my ring hand to keep him
from doing worse where it was too public I was dying to find out was he
circumcised he was shaking like a jelly all over they want to do
everything too quick take all the pleasure out of it and father waiting
all the time for his dinner he told me to say I left my purse in the
butchers and had to go back for it what a Deceiver then he wrote me that
letter with all those words in it how could he have the face to any woman
after his company manners making it so awkward after when we met asking
me have I offended you with my eyelids down of course he saw I wasnt he
had a few brains not like that other fool Henny Doyle he was always
breaking or tearing something in the charades I hate an unlucky man and
if I knew what it meant of course I had to say no for form sake dont
understand you I said and wasnt it natural so it is of course it used to
be written up with a picture of a womans on that wall in Gibraltar with
that word I couldnt find anywhere only for children seeing it too young
then writing every morning a letter sometimes twice a day I liked the way
he made love then he knew the way to take a woman when he sent me the 8
big poppies because mine was the 8th then I wrote the night he kissed my
heart at Dolphins barn I couldnt describe it simply it makes you feel
like nothing on earth but he never knew how to embrace well like Gardner
I hope hell come on Monday as he said at the same time four I hate people
who come at all hours answer the door you think its the vegetables then
its somebody and you all undressed or the door of the filthy sloppy
kitchen blows open the day old frostyface Goodwin called about the
concert in Lombard street and I just after dinner all flushed and tossed
with boiling old stew dont look at me professor I had to say Im a fright
yes but he was a real old gent in his way it was impossible to be more
respectful nobody to say youre out you have to peep out through the blind
like the messengerboy today I thought it was a putoff first him sending
the port and the peaches first and I was just beginning to yawn with
nerves thinking he was trying to make a fool of me when I knew his
tattarrattat at the door he must have been a bit late because it was l/4
after 3 when I saw the 2 Dedalus girls coming from school I never know
the time even that watch he gave me never seems to go properly Id want to
get it looked after when I threw the penny to that lame sailor for
England home and beauty when I was whistling there is a charming girl I
love and I hadnt even put on my clean shift or powdered myself or a thing
then this day week were to go to Belfast just as well he has to go to
Ennis his fathers anniversary the 27th it wouldnt be pleasant if he did
suppose our rooms at the hotel were beside each other and any fooling
went on in the new bed I couldnt tell him to stop and not bother me with
him in the next room or perhaps some protestant clergyman with a cough
knocking on the wall then hed never believe the next day we didnt do
something its all very well a husband but you cant fool a lover after me
telling him we never did anything of course he didnt believe me no its
better hes going where he is besides something always happens with him
the time going to the Mallow concert at Maryborough ordering boiling soup
for the two of us then the bell rang out he walks down the platform with
the soup splashing about taking spoonfuls of it hadnt he the nerve and
the waiter after him making a holy show of us screeching and confusion
for the engine to start but he wouldnt pay till he finished it the two
gentlemen in the 3rd class carriage said he was quite right so he was too
hes so pigheaded sometimes when he gets a thing into his head a good job
he was able to open the carriage door with his knife or theyd have taken
us on to Cork I suppose that was done out of revenge on him O I love
jaunting in a train or a car with lovely soft cushions I wonder will he
take a 1st class for me he might want to do it in the train by tipping
the guard well O I suppose therell be the usual idiots of men gaping at
us with their eyes as stupid as ever they can possibly be that was an
exceptional man that common workman that left us alone in the carriage
that day going to Howth Id like to find out something about him l or 2
tunnels perhaps then you have to look out of the window all the nicer
then coming back suppose I never came back what would they say eloped
with him that gets you on on the stage the last concert I sang at where
its over a year ago when was it St Teresas hall Clarendon St little chits
of missies they have now singing Kathleen Kearney and her like on account
of father being in the army and my singing the absentminded beggar and
wearing a brooch for Lord Roberts when I had the map of it all and Poldy
not Irish enough was it him managed it this time I wouldnt put it past
him like he got me on to sing in the STABAT MATER by going around saying
he was putting Lead Kindly Light to music I put him up to that till the
jesuits found out he was a freemason thumping the piano lead Thou me on
copied from some old opera yes and he was going about with some of them
Sinner Fein lately or whatever they call themselves talking his usual
trash and nonsense he says that little man he showed me without the neck
is very intelligent the coming man Griffiths is he well he doesnt look it
thats all I can say still it must have been him he knew there was a
boycott I hate the mention of their politics after the war that Pretoria
and Ladysmith and Bloemfontein where Gardner lieut Stanley G 8th Bn 2nd
East Lancs Rgt of enteric fever he was a lovely fellow in khaki and just
the right height over me Im sure he was brave too he said I was lovely
the evening we kissed goodbye at the canal lock my Irish beauty he was
pale with excitement about going away or wed be seen from the road he
couldnt stand properly and I so hot as I never felt they could have made
their peace in the beginning or old oom Paul and the rest of the other
old Krugers go and fight it out between them instead of dragging on for
years killing any finelooking men there were with their fever if he was
even decently shot it wouldnt have been so bad I love to see a regiment
pass in review the first time I saw the Spanish cavalry at La Roque it
was lovely after looking across the bay from Algeciras all the lights of
the rock like fireflies or those sham battles on the 15 acres the Black
Watch with their kilts in time at the march past the 10th hussars the
prince of Wales own or the lancers O the lancers theyre grand or the
Dublins that won Tugela his father made his money over selling the horses
for the cavalry well he could buy me a nice present up in Belfast after
what I gave him theyve lovely linen up there or one of those nice kimono
things I must buy a mothball like I had before to keep in the drawer with
them it would be exciting going round with him shopping buying those
things in a new city better leave this ring behind want to keep turning
and turning to get it over the knuckle there or they might bell it round
the town in their papers or tell the police on me but theyd think were
married O let them all go and smother themselves for the fat lot I care
he has plenty of money and hes not a marrying man so somebody better get
it out of him if I could find out whether he likes me I looked a bit
washy of course when I looked close in the handglass powdering a mirror
never gives you the expression besides scrooching down on me like that
all the time with his big hipbones hes heavy too with his hairy chest for
this heat always having to lie down for them better for him put it into
me from behind the way Mrs Mastiansky told me her husband made her like
the dogs do it and stick out her tongue as far as ever she could and he
so quiet and mild with his tingating cither can you ever be up to men the
way it takes them lovely stuff in that blue suit he had on and stylish
tie and socks with the skyblue silk things on them hes certainly well off
I know by the cut his clothes have and his heavy watch but he was like a
perfect devil for a few minutes after he came back with the stoppress
tearing up the tickets and swearing blazes because he lost 20 quid he
said he lost over that outsider that won and half he put on for me on
account of Lenehans tip cursing him to the lowest pits that sponger he
was making free with me after the Glencree dinner coming back that long
joult over the featherbed mountain after the lord Mayor looking at me
with his dirty eyes Val Dillon that big heathen I first noticed him at
dessert when I was cracking the nuts with my teeth I wished I could have
picked every morsel of that chicken out of my fingers it was so tasty and
browned and as tender as anything only for I didnt want to eat everything
on my plate those forks and fishslicers were hallmarked silver too I wish
I had some I could easily have slipped a couple into my muff when I was
playing with them then always hanging out of them for money in a
restaurant for the bit you put down your throat we have to be thankful
for our mangy cup of tea itself as a great compliment to be noticed the
way the world is divided in any case if its going to go on I want at
least two other good chemises for one thing and but I dont know what kind
of drawers he likes none at all I think didnt he say yes and half the
girls in Gibraltar never wore them either naked as God made them that
Andalusian singing her Manola she didnt make much secret of what she
hadnt yes and the second pair of silkette stockings is laddered after one
days wear I could have brought them back to Lewers this morning and
kicked up a row and made that one change them only not to upset myself
and run the risk of walking into him and ruining the whole thing and one
of those kidfitting corsets Id want advertised cheap in the Gentlewoman
with elastic gores on the hips he saved the one I have but thats no good
what did they say they give a delightful figure line 11/6 obviating that
unsightly broad appearance across the lower back to reduce flesh my belly
is a bit too big Ill have to knock off the stout at dinner or am I
getting too fond of it the last they sent from ORourkes was as flat as a
pancake he makes his money easy Larry they call him the old mangy parcel
he sent at Xmas a cottage cake and a bottle of hogwash he tried to palm
off as claret that he couldnt get anyone to drink God spare his spit for
fear hed die of the drouth or I must do a few breathing exercises I
wonder is that antifat any good might overdo it the thin ones are not so
much the fashion now garters that much I have the violet pair I wore
today thats all he bought me out of the cheque he got on the first O no
there was the face lotion I finished the last of yesterday that made my
skin like new I told him over and over again get that made up in the same
place and dont forget it God only knows whether he did after all I said
to him Ill know by the bottle anyway if not I suppose Ill only have to
wash in my piss like beeftea or chickensoup with some of that opoponax
and violet I thought it was beginning to look coarse or old a bit the
skin underneath is much finer where it peeled off there on my finger
after the burn its a pity it isnt all like that and the four paltry
handkerchiefs about 6/- in all sure you cant get on in this world without
style all going in food and rent when I get it Ill lash it around I tell
you in fine style I always want to throw a handful of tea into the pot
measuring and mincing if I buy a pair of old brogues itself do you like
those new shoes yes how much were they Ive no clothes at all the brown
costume and the skirt and jacket and the one at the cleaners 3 whats that
for any woman cutting up this old hat and patching up the other the men
wont look at you and women try to walk on you because they know youve no
man then with all the things getting dearer every day for the 4 years
more I have of life up to 35 no Im what am I at all Ill be 33 in
September will I what O well look at that Mrs Galbraith shes much older
than me I saw her when I was out last week her beautys on the wane she
was a lovely woman magnificent head of hair on her down to her waist
tossing it back like that like Kitty OShea in Grantham street 1st thing I
did every morning to look across see her combing it as if she loved it
and was full of it pity I only got to know her the day before we left and
that Mrs Langtry the jersey lily the prince of Wales was in love with I
suppose hes like the first man going the roads only for the name of a
king theyre all made the one way only a black mans Id like to try a
beauty up to what was she 45 there was some funny story about the jealous
old husband what was it at all and an oyster knife he went no he made her
wear a kind of a tin thing round her and the prince of Wales yes he had
the oyster knife cant be true a thing like that like some of those books
he brings me the works of Master Francois Somebody supposed to be a
priest about a child born out of her ear because her bumgut fell out a
nice word for any priest to write and her a--e as if any fool wouldnt
know what that meant I hate that pretending of all things with that old
blackguards face on him anybody can see its not true and that Ruby and
Fair Tyrants he brought me that twice I remember when I came to page 50
the part about where she hangs him up out of a hook with a cord
flagellate sure theres nothing for a woman in that all invention made up
about he drinking the champagne out of her slipper after the ball was
over like the infant Jesus in the crib at Inchicore in the Blessed
Virgins arms sure no woman could have a child that big taken out of her
and I thought first it came out of her side because how could she go to
the chamber when she wanted to and she a rich lady of course she felt
honoured H R H he was in Gibraltar the year I was born I bet he found
lilies there too where he planted the tree he planted more than that in
his time he might have planted me too if hed come a bit sooner then I
wouldnt be here as I am he ought to chuck that Freeman with the paltry
few shillings he knocks out of it and go into an office or something
where hed get regular pay or a bank where they could put him up on a
throne to count the money all the day of course he prefers plottering
about the house so you cant stir with him any side whats your programme
today I wish hed even smoke a pipe like father to get the smell of a man
or pretending to be mooching about for advertisements when he could have
been in Mr Cuffes still only for what he did then sending me to try and
patch it up I could have got him promoted there to be the manager he gave
me a great mirada once or twice first he was as stiff as the mischief
really and truly Mrs Bloom only I felt rotten simply with the old
rubbishy dress that I lost the leads out of the tails with no cut in it
but theyre coming into fashion again I bought it simply to please him I
knew it was no good by the finish pity I changed my mind of going to Todd
and Bums as I said and not Lees it was just like the shop itself rummage
sale a lot of trash I hate those rich shops get on your nerves nothing
kills me altogether only he thinks he knows a great lot about a womans
dress and cooking mathering everything he can scour off the shelves into
it if I went by his advices every blessed hat I put on does that suit me
yes take that thats alright the one like a weddingcake standing up miles
off my head he said suited me or the dishcover one coming down on my
backside on pins and needles about the shopgirl in that place in Grafton
street I had the misfortune to bring him into and she as insolent as ever
she could be with her smirk saying Im afraid were giving you too much
trouble what shes there for but I stared it out of her yes he was awfully
stiff and no wonder but he changed the second time he looked Poldy
pigheaded as usual like the soup but I could see him looking very hard at
my chest when he stood up to open the door for me it was nice of him to
show me out in any case Im extremely sorry Mrs Bloom believe me without
making it too marked the first time after him being insulted and me being
supposed to be his wife I just half smiled I know my chest was out that
way at the door when he said Im extremely sorry and Im sure you were
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The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
W.S. Gilbert

Category: Plays
Sections: 50   What's this?
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