<p>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 <i>Ave Maria</i> 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 <i>O Maria Santisima</i> 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
1/4 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 1 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 <i>Stabat Mater</i> 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
welloff 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 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 Burns 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</p>
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