Fiction

Ulysses

James Joyce

Section 74 of 74 - Table of Contents
who knows is there anything the matter with my insides or have I
something growing in me getting that thing like that every week when was
it last I Whit Monday yes its only about 3 weeks I ought to go to the
doctor only it would be like before I married him when I had that white
thing coming from me and Floey made me go to that dry old stick Dr
Collins for womens diseases on Pembroke road your vagina he called it I
suppose thats how he got all the gilt mirrors and carpets getting round
those rich ones off Stephens green running up to him for every little
fiddlefaddle her vagina and her cochinchina theyve money of course so
theyre all right I wouldnt marry him not if he was the last man in the
world besides theres something queer about their children always smelling
around those filthy bitches all sides asking me if what I did had an
offensive odour what did he want me to do but the one thing gold maybe
what a question if I smathered it all over his wrinkly old face for him
with all my compriments I suppose hed know then and could you pass it
easily pass what I thought he was talking about the rock of Gibraltar the
way he put it thats a very nice invention too by the way only I like
letting myself down after in the hole as far as I can squeeze and pull
the chain then to flush it nice cool pins and needles still theres
something in it I suppose I always used to know by Millys when she was a
child whether she had worms or not still all the same paying him for that
how much is that doctor one guinea please and asking me had I frequent
omissions where do those old fellows get all the words they have
omissions with his shortsighted eyes on me cocked sideways I wouldnt
trust him too far to give me chloroform or God knows what else still I
liked him when he sat down to write the thing out frowning so severe his
nose intelligent like that you be damned you lying strap O anything no
matter who except an idiot he was clever enough to spot that of course
that was all thinking of him and his mad crazy letters my Precious one
everything connected with your glorious Body everything underlined that
comes from it is a thing of beauty and of joy for ever something he got
out of some nonsensical book that he had me always at myself 4 and 5
times a day sometimes and I said I hadnt are you sure O yes I said I am
quite sure in a way that shut him up I knew what was coming next only
natural weakness it was he excited me I dont know how the first night
ever we met when I was living in Rehoboth terrace we stood staring at one
another for about 10 minutes as if we met somewhere I suppose on account
of my being jewess looking after my mother he used to amuse me the things
he said with the half sloothering smile on him and all the Doyles said he
was going to stand for a member of Parliament O wasnt I the born fool to
believe all his blather about home rule and the land league sending me
that long strool of a song out of the Huguenots to sing in French to be
more classy O beau pays de la Touraine that I never even sang once
explaining and rigmaroling about religion and persecution he wont let you
enjoy anything naturally then might he as a great favour the very 1st
opportunity he got a chance in Brighton square running into my bedroom
pretending the ink got on his hands to wash it off with the Albion milk
and sulphur soap I used to use and the gelatine still round it O I
laughed myself sick at him that day I better not make an alnight sitting
on this affair they ought to make chambers a natural size so that a woman
could sit on it properly he kneels down to do it I suppose there isnt in
all creation another man with the habits he has look at the way hes
sleeping at the foot of the bed how can he without a hard bolster its
well he doesnt kick or he might knock out all my teeth breathing with his
hand on his nose like that Indian god he took me to show one wet Sunday
in the museum in Kildare street all yellow in a pinafore lying on his
side on his hand with his ten toes sticking out that he said was a bigger
religion than the jews and Our Lords both put together all over Asia
imitating him as hes always imitating everybody I suppose he used to
sleep at the foot of the bed too with his big square feet up in his wifes
mouth damn this stinking thing anyway wheres this those napkins are ah
yes I know I hope the old press doesnt creak ah I knew it would hes
sleeping hard had a good time somewhere still she must have given him
great value for his money of course he has to pay for it from her O this
nuisance of a thing I hope theyll have something better for us in the
other world tying ourselves up God help us thats all right for tonight
now the lumpy old jingly bed always reminds me of old Cohen I suppose he
scratched himself in it often enough and he thinks father bought it from
Lord Napier that I used to admire when I was a little girl because I told
him easy piano O I like my bed God here we are as bad as ever after 16
years how many houses were we in at all Raymond terrace and Ontario
terrace and Lombard street and Holles street and he goes about whistling
every time were on the run again his huguenots or the frogs march
pretending to help the men with our 4 sticks of furniture and then the
City Arms hotel worse and worse says Warden Daly that charming place on
the landing always somebody inside praying then leaving all their stinks
after them always know who was in there last every time were just getting
on right something happens or he puts his big foot in it Thoms and Helys
and Mr Cuffes and Drimmies either hes going to be run into prison over
his old lottery tickets that was to be all our salvations or he goes and
gives impudence well have him coming home with the sack soon out of the
Freeman too like the rest on account of those Sinner Fein or the
freemasons then well see if the little man he showed me dribbling along
in the wet all by himself round by Coadys lane will give him much
consolation that he says is so capable and sincerely Irish he is indeed
judging by the sincerity of the trousers I saw on him wait theres Georges
church bells wait 3 quarters the hour l wait 2 oclock well thats a nice
hour of the night for him to be coming home at to anybody climbing down
into the area if anybody saw him Ill knock him off that little habit
tomorrow first Ill look at his shirt to see or Ill see if he has that
French letter still in his pocketbook I suppose he thinks I dont know
deceitful men all their 20 pockets arent enough for their lies then why
should we tell them even if its the truth they dont believe you then
tucked up in bed like those babies in the Aristocrats Masterpiece he
brought me another time as if we hadnt enough of that in real life
without some old Aristocrat or whatever his name is disgusting you more
with those rotten pictures children with two heads and no legs thats the
kind of villainy theyre always dreaming about with not another thing in
their empty heads they ought to get slow poison the half of them then tea
and toast for him buttered on both sides and newlaid eggs I suppose Im
nothing any more when I wouldnt let him lick me in Holles street one
night man man tyrant as ever for the one thing he slept on the floor half
the night naked the way the jews used when somebody dies belonged to them
and wouldnt eat any breakfast or speak a word wanting to be petted so I
thought I stood out enough for one time and let him he does it all wrong
too thinking only of his own pleasure his tongue is too flat or I dont
know what he forgets that wethen I dont Ill make him do it again if he
doesnt mind himself and lock him down to sleep in the coalcellar with the
blackbeetles I wonder was it her Josie off her head with my castoffs hes
such a born liar too no hed never have the courage with a married woman
thats why he wants me and Boylan though as for her Denis as she calls him
that forlornlooking spectacle you couldnt call him a husband yes its some
little bitch hes got in with even when I was with him with Milly at the
College races that Hornblower with the childs bonnet on the top of his
nob let us into by the back way he was throwing his sheeps eyes at those
two doing skirt duty up and down I tried to wink at him first no use of
course and thats the way his money goes this is the fruits of Mr Paddy
Dignam yes they were all in great style at the grand funeral in the paper
Boylan brought in if they saw a real officers funeral thatd be something
reversed arms muffled drums the poor horse walking behind in black L Boom
and Tom Kernan that drunken little barrelly man that bit his tongue off
falling down the mens W C drunk in some place or other and Martin
Cunningham and the two Dedaluses and Fanny MCoys husband white head of
cabbage skinny thing with a turn in her eye trying to sing my songs shed
want to be born all over again and her old green dress with the lowneck
as she cant attract them any other way like dabbling on a rainy day I see
it all now plainly and they call that friendship killing and then burying
one another and they all with their wives and families at home more
especially Jack Power keeping that barmaid he does of course his wife is
always sick or going to be sick or just getting better of it and hes a
goodlooking man still though hes getting a bit grey over the ears theyre
a nice lot all of them well theyre not going to get my husband again into
their clutches if I can help it making fun of him then behind his back I
know well when he goes on with his idiotics because he has sense enough
not to squander every penny piece he earns down their gullets and looks
after his wife and family goodfornothings poor Paddy Dignam all the same
Im sorry in a way for him what are his wife and 5 children going to do
unless he was insured comical little teetotum always stuck up in some pub
corner and her or her son waiting Bill Bailey wont you please come home
her widows weeds wont improve her appearance theyre awfully becoming
though if youre goodlooking what men wasnt he yes he was at the Glencree
dinner and Ben Dollard base barreltone the night he borrowed the
swallowtail to sing out of in Holles street squeezed and squashed into
them and grinning all over his big Dolly face like a wellwhipped childs
botty didnt he look a balmy ballocks sure enough that must have been a
spectacle on the stage imagine paying 5/- in the preserved seats for that
to see him trotting off in his trowlers and Simon Dedalus too he was
always turning up half screwed singing the second verse first the old
love is the new was one of his so sweetly sang the maiden on the hawthorn
bough he was always on for flirtyfying too when I sang Maritana with him
at Freddy Mayers private opera he had a delicious glorious voice Phoebe
dearest goodbye sweetheart SWEETheart he always sang it not like Bartell
Darcy sweet tart goodbye of course he had the gift of the voice so there
was no art in it all over you like a warm showerbath O Maritana wildwood
flower we sang splendidly though it was a bit too high for my register
even transposed and he was married at the time to May Goulding but then
hed say or do something to knock the good out of it hes a widower now I
wonder what sort is his son he says hes an author and going to be a
university professor of Italian and Im to take lessons what is he driving
at now showing him my photo its not good of me I ought to have got it
taken in drapery that never looks out of fashion still I look young in it
I wonder he didnt make him a present of it altogether and me too after
all why not I saw him driving down to the Kingsbridge station with his
father and mother I was in mourning thats 11 years ago now yes hed be 11
though what was the good in going into mourning for what was neither one
thing nor the other the first cry was enough for me I heard the
deathwatch too ticking in the wall of course he insisted hed go into
mourning for the cat I suppose hes a man now by this time he was an
innocent boy then and a darling little fellow in his lord Fauntleroy suit
and curly hair like a prince on the stage when I saw him at Mat Dillons
he liked me too I remember they all do wait by God yes wait yes hold on
he was on the cards this morning when I laid out the deck union with a
young stranger neither dark nor fair you met before I thought it meant
him but hes no chicken nor a stranger either besides my face was turned
the other way what was the 7th card after that the 10 of spades for a
journey by land then there was a letter on its way and scandals too the 3
queens and the 8 of diamonds for a rise in society yes wait it all came
out and 2 red 8s for new garments look at that and didnt I dream
something too yes there was something about poetry in it I hope he hasnt
long greasy hair hanging into his eyes or standing up like a red Indian
what do they go about like that for only getting themselves and their
poetry laughed at I always liked poetry when I was a girl first I thought
he was a poet like lord Byron and not an ounce of it in his composition I
thought he was quite different I wonder is he too young hes about wait 88
I was married 88 Milly is 15 yesterday 89 what age was he then at Dillons
5 or 6 about 88 I suppose hes 20 or more Im not too old for him if hes 23
or 24 I hope hes not that stuckup university student sort no otherwise he
wouldnt go sitting down in the old kitchen with him taking Eppss cocoa
and talking of course he pretended to understand it all probably he told
him he was out of Trinity college hes very young to be a professor I hope
hes not a professor like Goodwin was he was a potent professor of John
Jameson they all write about some woman in their poetry well I suppose he
wont find many like me where softly sighs of love the light guitar where
poetry is in the air the blue sea and the moon shining so beautifully
coming back on the nightboat from Tarifa the lighthouse at Europa point
the guitar that fellow played was so expressive will I ever go back there
again all new faces two glancing eyes a lattice hid Ill sing that for him
theyre my eyes if hes anything of a poet two eyes as darkly bright as
loves own star arent those beautiful words as loves young star itll be a
change the Lord knows to have an intelligent person to talk to about
yourself not always listening to him and Billy Prescotts ad and Keyess ad
and Tom the Devils ad then if anything goes wrong in their business we
have to suffer Im sure hes very distinguished Id like to meet a man like
that God not those other ruck besides hes young those fine young men I
could see down in Margate strand bathingplace from the side of the rock
standing up in the sun naked like a God or something and then plunging
into the sea with them why arent all men like that thered be some
consolation for a woman like that lovely little statue he bought I could
look at him all day long curly head and his shoulders his finger up for
you to listen theres real beauty and poetry for you I often felt I wanted
to kiss him all over also his lovely young cock there so simple I wouldnt
mind taking him in my mouth if nobody was looking as if it was asking you
to suck it so clean and white he looks with his boyish face I would too
in 1/2 a minute even if some of it went down what its only like gruel or
the dew theres no danger besides hed be so clean compared with those pigs
of men I suppose never dream of washing it from I years end to the other
the most of them only thats what gives the women the moustaches Im sure
itll be grand if I can only get in with a handsome young poet at my age
Ill throw them the 1st thing in the morning till I see if the wishcard
comes out or Ill try pairing the lady herself and see if he comes out Ill
read and study all I can find or learn a bit off by heart if I knew who
he likes so he wont think me stupid if he thinks all women are the same
and I can teach him the other part Ill make him feel all over him till he
half faints under me then hell write about me lover and mistress publicly
too with our 2 photographs in all the papers when he becomes famous O but
then what am I going to do about him though

no thats no way for him has he no manners nor no refinement nor no
nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I
didnt call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesnt know poetry from a cabbage
thats what you get for not keeping them in their proper place pulling off
his shoes and trousers there on the chair before me so barefaced without
even asking permission and standing out that vulgar way in the half of a
shirt they wear to be admired like a priest or a butcher or those old
hypocrites in the time of Julius Caesar of course hes right enough in his
way to pass the time as a joke sure you might as well be in bed with what
with a lion God Im sure hed have something better to say for himself an
old Lion would O well I suppose its because they were so plump and
tempting in my short petticoat he couldnt resist they excite myself
sometimes its well for men all the amount of pleasure they get off a
womans body were so round and white for them always I wished I was one
myself for a change just to try with that thing they have swelling up on
you so hard and at the same time so soft when you touch it my uncle John
has a thing long I heard those cornerboys saying passing the comer of
Marrowbone lane my aunt Mary has a thing hairy because it was dark and
they knew a girl was passing it didnt make me blush why should it either
its only nature and he puts his thing long into my aunt Marys hairy
etcetera and turns out to be you put the handle in a sweepingbrush men
again all over they can pick and choose what they please a married woman
or a fast widow or a girl for their different tastes like those houses
round behind Irish street no but were to be always chained up theyre not
going to be chaining me up no damn fear once I start I tell you for their
stupid husbands jealousy why cant we all remain friends over it instead
of quarrelling her husband found it out what they did together well
naturally and if he did can he undo it hes coronado anyway whatever he
does and then he going to the other mad extreme about the wife in Fair
Tyrants of course the man never even casts a 2nd thought on the husband
or wife either its the woman he wants and he gets her what else were we
given all those desires for Id like to know I cant help it if Im young
still can I its a wonder Im not an old shrivelled hag before my time
living with him so cold never embracing me except sometimes when hes
asleep the wrong end of me not knowing I suppose who he has any man thatd
kiss a womans bottom Id throw my hat at him after that hed kiss anything
unnatural where we havent I atom of any kind of expression in us all of
us the same 2 lumps of lard before ever Id do that to a man pfooh the
dirty brutes the mere thought is enough I kiss the feet of you senorita
theres some sense in that didnt he kiss our halldoor yes he did what a
madman nobody understands his cracked ideas but me still of course a
woman wants to be embraced 20 times a day almost to make her look young
no matter by who so long as to be in love or loved by somebody if the
fellow you want isnt there sometimes by the Lord God I was thinking would
I go around by the quays there some dark evening where nobodyd know me
and pick up a sailor off the sea thatd be hot on for it and not care a
pin whose I was only do it off up in a gate somewhere or one of those
wildlooking gipsies in Rathfarnham had their camp pitched near the
Bloomfield laundry to try and steal our things if they could I only sent
mine there a few times for the name model laundry sending me back over
and over some old ones odd stockings that blackguardlooking fellow with
the fine eyes peeling a switch attack me in the dark and ride me up
against the wall without a word or a murderer anybody what they do
themselves the fine gentlemen in their silk hats that K C lives up
somewhere this way coming out of Hardwicke lane the night he gave us the
fish supper on account of winning over the boxing match of course it was
for me he gave it I knew him by his gaiters and the walk and when I
turned round a minute after just to see there was a woman after coming
out of it too some filthy prostitute then he goes home to his wife after
that only I suppose the half of those sailors are rotten again with
disease O move over your big carcass out of that for the love of Mike
listen to him the winds that waft my sighs to thee so well he may sleep
and sigh the great Suggester Don Poldo de la Flora if he knew how he came
out on the cards this morning hed have something to sigh for a dark man
in some perplexity between 2 7s too in prison for Lord knows what he does
that I dont know and Im to be slooching around down in the kitchen to get
his lordship his breakfast while hes rolled up like a mummy will I indeed
did you ever see me running Id just like to see myself at it show them
attention and they treat you like dirt I dont care what anybody says itd
be much better for the world to be governed by the women in it you
wouldnt see women going and killing one another and slaughtering when do
you ever see women rolling around drunk like they do or gambling every
penny they have and losing it on horses yes because a woman whatever she
does she knows where to stop sure they wouldnt be in the world at all
only for us they dont know what it is to be a woman and a mother how
could they where would they all of them be if they hadnt all a mother to
look after them what I never had thats why I suppose hes running wild now
out at night away from his books and studies and not living at home on
account of the usual rowy house I suppose well its a poor case that those
that have a fine son like that theyre not satisfied and I none was he not
able to make one it wasnt my fault we came together when I was watching
the two dogs up in her behind in the middle of the naked street that
disheartened me altogether I suppose I oughtnt to have buried him in that
little woolly jacket I knitted crying as I was but give it to some poor
child but I knew well Id never have another our 1st death too it was we
were never the same since O Im not going to think myself into the glooms
about that any more I wonder why he wouldnt stay the night I felt all the
time it was somebody strange he brought in instead of roving around the
city meeting God knows who nightwalkers and pickpockets his poor mother
wouldnt like that if she was alive ruining himself for life perhaps still
its a lovely hour so silent I used to love coming home after dances the
air of the night they have friends they can talk to weve none either he
wants what he wont get or its some woman ready to stick her knife in you
I hate that in women no wonder they treat us the way they do we are a
dreadful lot of bitches I suppose its all the troubles we have makes us
so snappy Im not like that he could easy have slept in there on the sofa
in the other room I suppose he was as shy as a boy he being so young
hardly 20 of me in the next room hed have heard me on the chamber arrah
what harm Dedalus I wonder its like those names in Gibraltar Delapaz
Delagracia they had the devils queer names there father Vilaplana of
Santa Maria that gave me the rosary Rosales y OReilly in the Calle las
Siete Revueltas and Pisimbo and Mrs Opisso in Governor street O what a
name Id go and drown myself in the first river if I had a name like her O
my and all the bits of streets Paradise ramp and Bedlam ramp and Rodgers
ramp and Crutchetts ramp and the devils gap steps well small blame to me
if I am a harumscarum I know I am a bit I declare to God I dont feel a
day older than then I wonder could I get my tongue round any of the
Spanish como esta usted muy bien gracias y usted see I havent forgotten
it all I thought I had only for the grammar a noun is the name of any
person place or thing pity I never tried to read that novel cantankerous
Mrs Rubio lent me by Valera with the questions in it all upside down the
two ways I always knew wed go away in the end I can tell him the Spanish
and he tell me the Italian then hell see Im not so ignorant what a pity
he didnt stay Im sure the poor fellow was dead tired and wanted a good
sleep badly I could have brought him in his breakfast in bed with a bit
of toast so long as I didnt do it on the knife for bad luck or if the
woman was going her rounds with the watercress and something nice and
tasty there are a few olives in the kitchen he might like I never could
bear the look of them in Abrines I could do the criada the room looks all
right since I changed it the other way you see something was telling me
all the time Id have to introduce myself not knowing me from Adam very
funny wouldnt it Im his wife or pretend we were in Spain with him half
awake without a Gods notion where he is dos huevos estrellados senor Lord
the cracked things come into my head sometimes itd be great fun supposing
he stayed with us why not theres the room upstairs empty and Millys bed
in the back room he could do his writing and studies at the table in
there for all the scribbling he does at it and if he wants to read in bed
in the morning like me as hes making the breakfast for I he can make it
for 2 Im sure Im not going to take in lodgers off the street for him if
he takes a gesabo of a house like this Id love to have a long talk with
an intelligent welleducated person Id have to get a nice pair of red
slippers like those Turks with the fez used to sell or yellow and a nice
semitransparent morning gown that I badly want or a peachblossom dressing
jacket like the one long ago in Walpoles only 8/6 or 18/6 Ill just give
him one more chance Ill get up early in the morning Im sick of Cohens old
bed in any case I might go over to the markets to see all the vegetables
and cabbages and tomatoes and carrots and all kinds of splendid fruits
all coming in lovely and fresh who knows whod be the 1st man Id meet
theyre out looking for it in the morning Mamy Dillon used to say they are
and the night too that was her massgoing Id love a big juicy pear now to
melt in your mouth like when I used to be in the longing way then Ill
throw him up his eggs and tea in the moustachecup she gave him to make
his mouth bigger I suppose hed like my nice cream too I know what Ill do
Ill go about rather gay not too much singing a bit now and then mi fa
pieta Masetto then Ill start dressing myself to go out presto non son piu
forte Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out
of that to make his micky stand for him Ill let him know if thats what he
wanted that his wife is I s l o fucked yes and damn well fucked too up to
my neck nearly not by him 5 or 6 times handrunning theres the mark of his
spunk on the clean sheet I wouldnt bother to even iron it out that ought
to satisfy him if you dont believe me feel my belly unless I made him
stand there and put him into me Ive a mind to tell him every scrap and
make him do it out in front of me serve him right its all his own fault
if I am an adulteress as the thing in the gallery said O much about it if
thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not
much doesnt everybody only they hide it I suppose thats what a woman is
supposed to be there for or He wouldnt have made us the way He did so
attractive to men then if he wants to kiss my bottom Ill drag open my
drawers and bulge it right out in his face as large as life he can stick
his tongue 7 miles up my hole as hes there my brown part then Ill tell
him I want LI or perhaps 30/- Ill tell him I want to buy underclothes
then if he gives me that well he wont be too bad I dont want to soak it
all out of him like other women do I could often have written out a fine
cheque for myself and write his name on it for a couple of pounds a few
times he forgot to lock it up besides he wont spend it Ill let him do it
off on me behind provided he doesnt smear all my good drawers O I suppose
that cant be helped Ill do the indifferent l or 2 questions Ill know by
the answers when hes like that he cant keep a thing back I know every
turn in him Ill tighten my bottom well and let out a few smutty words
smellrump or lick my shit or the first mad thing comes into my head then
Ill suggest about yes O wait now sonny my turn is coming Ill be quite gay
and friendly over it O but I was forgetting this bloody pest of a thing
pfooh you wouldnt know which to laugh or cry were such a mixture of plum
and apple no Ill have to wear the old things so much the better itll be
more pointed hell never know whether he did it or not there thats good
enough for you any old thing at all then Ill wipe him off me just like a
business his omission then Ill go out Ill have him eying up at the
ceiling where is she gone now make him want me thats the only way a
quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in
China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns
ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except
an odd priest or two for his night office or the alarmclock next door at
cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze
off 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars
the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was
like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and
try again so as I can get up early Ill go to Lambes there beside
Findlaters and get them to send us some flowers to put about the place in
case he brings him home tomorrow today I mean no no Fridays an unlucky
day first I want to do the place up someway the dust grows in it I think
while Im asleep then we can have music and cigarettes I can accompany him
first I must clean the keys of the piano with milk whatll I wear shall I
wear a white rose or those fairy cakes in Liptons I love the smell of a
rich big shop at 7 1/2d a lb or the other ones with the cherries in them
and the pinky sugar 11d a couple of lbs of those a nice plant for the
middle of the table Id get that cheaper in wait wheres this I saw them
not long ago I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in
roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then
the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields
of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going
about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers
all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the
ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no
God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why
dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or whatever
they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then
they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre
afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well
who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that
made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they
might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for
you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head
in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to
me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was
leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near
lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are
flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life
and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I
saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get
round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he
asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the
sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey
and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the
sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they
called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with
the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish
girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in
the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who
else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all
clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep
and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and
the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of
years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like
kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with
the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her
lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the
castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman
going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and
the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and
the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets
and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the
jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was
a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the
Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me
under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then
I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I
yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes
and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and
his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.



Trieste-Zurich-Paris
1914-1921
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The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
W.S. Gilbert

Category: Plays
Sections: 50   What's this?
Table of Contents


Non Fiction
Short Stories
Poetry
Plays
Sci Fi
Philosophy
Religion
Biography