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protuberances and salient points caused by foot pressure in
the course of walking repeatedly in several different direc-
tions, then, inclined, he disnoded the laceknots, unhooked
and loosened the laces, took off each of his two boots for the
second time, detached the partially moistened right sock
through the fore part of which the nail of his great toe had
again effracted, raised his right foot and, having unhooked
a purple elastic sock suspender, took off his right sock,
placed his unclothed right foot on the margin of the seat of
his chair, picked at and gently lacerated the protruding part
of the great toenail, raised the part lacerated to his nostrils
and inhaled the odour of the quick, then, with satisfaction,
threw away the lacerated ungual fragment.
Why with satisfaction?
Because the odour inhaled corresponded to other odours
inhaled of other ungual fragments, picked and lacerated by
Master Bloom, pupil of Mrs Ellis’s juvenile school, patient-
ly each night in the act of brief genuflection and nocturnal
prayer and ambitious meditation.
In what ultimate ambition had all concurrent and con-
secutive ambitions now coalesced?
Not to inherit by right of primogeniture, gavelkind or
borough English, or possess in perpetuity an extensive de-
mesne of a sufficient number of acres, roods and perches,
statute land measure (valuation 42 pounds), of grazing
turbary surrounding a baronial hall with gatelodge and
carriage drive nor, on the other hand, a terracehouse or
semidetached villa, described as Rus in Urbe or Qui si sana,
but to purchase by private treaty in fee simple a thatched