Page:Ulysses, 1922.djvu/526

stephen

(Extends his hand to her smiling and chants to the air of the bloodoath in the Dusk of the Gods.)

Hangende Hunger,
Fragende Frau,
Macht uns alle kaput.

zoe

(Tragically.) Hamlet, I am thy father’s gimlet! (She takes his hand.) Blue eyes beauty I’ll read your hand. (She points to his forehead.) No wit, no wrinkles (She counts.) Two, three, Mars, that’s courage. (Stephen shakes his head.) No kid.

lynch

Sheet lightning courage. The youth who could not shiver and shake. (To Zoe.) Who taught you palmistry?

zoe

(Turns.) Ask my ballocks that I haven’t got. (To Stephen.) I see it in your face. The eye, like that. (She frowns with lowered head.)

lynch

(Laughing, slaps Kitty behind twice.) Like that. Pandy bat.

(Twice loudly a pandybat cracks, the coffin of the pianola flies open, the bald tittle round jack-in-the-box head of Father Dolan springs up.)

father dolan

Any boy want flogging? Broke his glasses? Lazy idle little schemer. See it in your eye.

(Mild, benign, rectorial, reproving, the head of Don John Connee rises from the pianola coffin.)

don john connee

Now, Father Dolan! Now. I’m sure that Stephen is a very good little boy.

zoe

(Examining Stephen’s palm.) Woman’s hand.