<p>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 wait two 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 <i>sweet</i>heart he always
sang it not like Bartell DArcy sweet <i>tart</i> 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 1 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</p>
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