Four Novels by James Joyce. James Joyce

I am sitting on something hard. Ah, that soap: in my hip pocket. Better shift it out of that. Wait for an opportunity.

      All waited. Then wheels were heard from in front, turning: then nearer: then horses' hoofs. A jolt. Their carriage began to move, creaking and swaying. Other hoofs and creaking wheels started behind. The blinds of the avenue passed and number nine with its craped knocker, door ajar. At walking pace.

      They waited still, their knees jogging, till they had turned and were passing along the tramtracks. Tritonville road. Quicker. The wheels rattled rolling over the cobbled causeway and the crazy glasses shook rattling in the doorframes.

      --What way is he taking us? Mr Power asked through both windows.

      --Irishtown, Martin Cunningham said. Ringsend. Brunswick street.

      Mr Dedalus nodded, looking out.

      --That's a fine old custom, he said. I am glad to see it has not died out.

      All watched awhile through their windows caps and hats lifted by passers. Respect. The carriage swerved from the tramtrack to the smoother road past Watery lane. Mr Bloom at gaze saw a lithe young man, clad in mourning, a wide hat.

      --There's a friend of yours gone by, Dedalus, he said.

      --Who is that?

      --Your son and heir.

      --Where is he? Mr Dedalus said, stretching over across.

      The carriage, passing the open drains and mounds of rippedup roadway before the tenement houses, lurched round the corner and, swerving back to the tramtrack, rolled on noisily with chattering wheels. Mr Dedalus fell back, saying:

      --Was that Mulligan cad with him? His FIDUS ACHATES!

      --No, Mr Bloom said. He was alone.

      --Down with his aunt Sally, I suppose, Mr Dedalus said, the Goulding faction, the drunken little costdrawer and Crissie, papa's little lump of dung, the wise child that knows her own father.

      Mr Bloom smiled joylessly on Ringsend road. Wallace Bros: the bottleworks: Dodder bridge.

      Richie Goulding and the legal bag. Goulding, Collis and Ward he calls the firm. His jokes are getting a bit damp. Great card he was. Waltzing in Stamer street with Ignatius Gallaher on a Sunday morning, the landlady's two hats pinned on his head. Out on the rampage all night. Beginning to tell on him now: that backache of his, I fear. Wife ironing his back. Thinks he'll cure it with pills. All breadcrumbs they are. About six hundred per cent profit.

      --He's in with a lowdown crowd, Mr Dedalus snarled. That Mulligan is a contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts. His name stinks all over Dublin. But with the help of God and His blessed mother I'll make it my business to write a letter one of those days to his mother or his aunt or whatever she is that will open her eye as wide as a gate. I'll tickle his catastrophe, believe you me.

      He cried above the clatter of the wheels:

      --I won't have her bastard of a nephew ruin my son. A counterjumper's son. Selling tapes in my cousin, Peter Paul M'Swiney's. Not likely.

      He ceased. Mr Bloom glanced from his angry moustache to Mr Power's mild face and Martin Cunningham's eyes and beard, gravely shaking. Noisy selfwilled man. Full of his son. He is right. Something to hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling it would be. From me. Just a chance. Must have been that morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs at it by the wall of the cease to do evil. And the sergeant grinning up. She had that cream gown on with the rip she never stitched. Give us a touch, Poldy. God, I'm dying for it. How life begins.

      Got big then. Had to refuse the Greystones concert. My son inside her. I could have helped him on in life. I could. Make him independent. Learn German too.

      --Are we late? Mr Power asked.

      --Ten minutes, Martin Cunningham said, looking at his watch.

      Molly. Milly. Same thing watered down. Her tomboy oaths. O jumping Jupiter! Ye gods and little fishes! Still, she's a dear girl. Soon be a woman. Mullingar. Dearest Papli. Young student. Yes, yes: a woman too. Life, life.

      The carriage heeled over and back, their four trunks swaying.

      --Corny might have given us a more commodious yoke, Mr Power said.

      --He might, Mr Dedalus said, if he hadn't that squint troubling him. Do you follow me?

      He closed his left eye. Martin Cunningham began to brush away crustcrumbs from under his thighs.

      --What is this, he said, in the name of God? Crumbs?

      --Someone seems to have been making a picnic party here lately, Mr Power said.

      All raised their thighs and eyed with disfavour the mildewed buttonless leather of the seats. Mr Dedalus, twisting his nose, frowned downward and said:

      --Unless I'm greatly mistaken. What do you think, Martin?

      --It struck me too, Martin Cunningham said.

      Mr Bloom set his thigh down. Glad I took that bath. Feel my feet quite clean. But I wish Mrs Fleming had darned these socks better.

      Mr Dedalus sighed resignedly.

      --After all, he said, it's the most natural thing in the world.

      --Did Tom Kernan turn up? Martin Cunningham asked, twirling the peak of his beard gently.

      --Yes, Mr Bloom answered. He's behind with Ned Lambert and Hynes.

      --And Corny Kelleher himself? Mr Power asked.

      --At the cemetery, Martin Cunningham said.

      --I met M'Coy this morning, Mr Bloom said. He said he'd try to come.

      The carriage halted short.

      --What's wrong?

      --We're stopped.

      --Where are we?

      Mr Bloom put his head out of the window.

      --The grand canal, he said.

      Gasworks. Whooping cough they say it cures. Good job Milly never got it. Poor children! Doubles them up black and blue in convulsions. Shame really. Got off lightly with illnesses compared. Only measles. Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics. Canvassing for death. Don't miss this chance. Dogs' home over there. Poor old Athos! Be good to Athos, Leopold, is my last wish. Thy will be done. We obey them in the grave. A dying scrawl. He took it to heart, pined away. Quiet brute. Old men's dogs usually are.

      A raindrop spat on his hat. He drew back and saw an instant of shower spray dots over the grey flags. Apart. Curious. Like through a colander. I thought it would. My boots were creaking I remember now.

      --The weather is changing, he said quietly.

      --A pity it did not keep up fine, Martin Cunningham said.

      --Wanted for the country, Mr Power said. There's the sun again coming out.

      Mr Dedalus, peering through his glasses towards the veiled sun, hurled a mute curse at the sky.

      --It's as uncertain as a child's bottom, he said.

      --We're off again.

      The carriage turned again its stiff wheels and their trunks swayed gently. Martin Cunningham twirled more quickly the peak of his beard.

      --Tom Kernan was immense last night, he said. And Paddy Leonard taking him off to his face.

      --O, draw him out, Martin, Mr Power said eagerly. Wait till you hear him, Simon, on Ben Dollard's singing of THE CROPPY BOY.

      --Immense, Martin