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qualified men for the lower orders. On the other hand he
had a distinct and painful recollection they paid his wife,
Madam Marion Tweedy who had been prominently associ-
ated with it at one time, a very modest remuneration indeed
for her pianoplaying. The idea, he was strongly inclined
to believe, was to do good and net a profit, there being no
competition to speak of. Sulphate of copper poison SO4 or
something in some dried peas he remembered reading of in
a cheap eatinghouse somewhere but he couldn’t remember
when it was or where. Anyhow inspection, medical inspec-
tion, of all eatables seemed to him more than ever necessary
which possibly accounted for the vogue of Dr Tibble’s Vi-
Cocoa on account of the medical analysis involved.
—Have a shot at it now, he ventured to say of the coffee
after being stirred.
Thus prevailed on to at any rate taste it Stephen lifted the
heavy mug from the brown puddle it clopped out of when
taken up by the handle and took a sip of the offending bev-
erage.
—Still it’s solid food, his good genius urged, I’m a stickler
for solid food, his one and only reason being not gorman-
dising in the least but regular meals as the sine qua non for
any kind of proper work, mental or manual. You ought to
eat more solid food. You would feel a different man.
—Liquids I can eat, Stephen said. But O, oblige me by
taking away that knife. I can’t look at the point of it. It re-
minds me of Roman history.
Mr Bloom promptly did as suggested and removed the
incriminated article, a blunt hornhandled ordinary knife