Ulysses
And free our native land.(He staggers forward, dragging them with him. Bloom
stops, at fault. The dog approaches, his tongue outlolling,
panting)
BLOOM: Wildgoose chase this. Disorderly houses. Lord
knows where they are gone. Drunks cover distance double
quick. Nice mixup. Scene at Westland row. Then jump in
first class with third ticket. Then too far. Train with engine
behind. Might have taken me to Malahide or a siding for
the night or collision. Second drink does it. Once is a dose.
What am I following him for? Still, he’s the best of that lot.
If I hadn’t heard about Mrs Beaufoy Purefoy I wouldn’t have
gone and wouldn’t have met. Kismet. He’ll lose that cash.
Relieving office here. Good biz for cheapjacks, organs. What
do ye lack? Soon got, soon gone. Might have lost my life too
with that mangongwheeltracktrolleyglarejuggernaut only
for presence of mind. Can’t always save you, though. If I
had passed Truelock’s window that day two minutes later
would have been shot. Absence of body. Still if bullet only
went through my coat get damages for shock, five hundred
pounds. What was he? Kildare street club toff. God help his
gamekeeper.
(He gazes ahead, reading on the wall a scrawled chalk
legend Wet Dream and a phallic design.) Odd! Molly draw-
ing on the frosted carriagepane at Kingstown. What’s that
like? (Gaudy dollwomen loll in the lighted doorways, in win-
dow embrasures, smoking birdseye cigarettes. The odour of
the sicksweet weed floats towards him in slow round ovalling