Ulysses
—The gunboat, the keeper said.
—It beats me, Mr Bloom confided to Stephen, medically
I am speaking, how a wretched creature like that from the
Lock hospital reeking with disease can be barefaced enough
to solicit or how any man in his sober senses, if he values his
health in the least. Unfortunate creature! Of course I sup-
pose some man is ultimately responsible for her condition.
Still no matter what the cause is from ...
Stephen had not noticed her and shrugged his shoulders,
merely remarking:
—In this country people sell much more than she ever
had and do a roaring trade. Fear not them that sell the body
but have not power to buy the soul. She is a bad merchant.
She buys dear and sells cheap.
The elder man, though not by any manner of means an
old maid or a prude, said it was nothing short of a crying
scandal that ought to be put a stop to instanter to say that
women of that stamp (quite apart from any oldmaidish
squeamishness on the subject), a necessary evil, w ere not
licensed and medically inspected by the proper authorities,
a thing, he could truthfully state, he, as a paterfamilias, was
a stalwart advocate of from the very first start. Whoever
embarked on a policy of the sort, he said, and ventilated the
matter thoroughly would confer a lasting boon on every-
body concerned.
—You as a good catholic, he observed, talking of body
and soul, believe in the soul. Or do you mean the intelli-
gence, the brainpower as such, as distinct from any outside
object, the table, let us say, that cup. I believe in that my-