He counts)_ One, seven, eleven, and
five. Six. Eleven. I don't answer for what you may have lost.
STEPHEN: Why striking eleven? Proparoxyton. Moment before the next
Lessing says. Thirsty fox. _(He laughs loudly)_ Burying his grandmother.
Probably he killed her.
BLOOM: That is one pound six and eleven. One pound seven, say.
STEPHEN: Doesn't matter a rambling damn.
BLOOM: No, but...
STEPHEN: _(Comes to the table)_ Cigarette, please. _(Lynch tosses a
cigarette from the sofa to the table)_ And so Georgina Johnson is dead
and married. _(A cigarette appears on the table. Stephen looks at it)_
Wonder. Parlour magic. Married. Hm. _(He strikes a match and proceeds to
light the cigarette with enigmatic melancholy)_
LYNCH: _(Watching him)_ You would have a better chance of lighting it if
you held the match nearer.
STEPHEN: _(Brings the match near his eye)_ Lynx eye. Must get glasses.
Broke them yesterday. Sixteen years ago. Distance. The eye sees all
flat. _(He draws the match away. It goes out.)_ Brain thinks. Near:
far. Ineluctable modality of the visible. _(He frowns mysteriously)_ Hm.
Sphinx. The beast that has twobacks at midnight. Married.
ZOE: It was a commercial traveller married her and took her away with
him.
FLORRY: _(Nods)_ Mr Lambe from London.
STEPHEN: Lamb of London, who takest away the sins of our world.
LYNCH: _(Embracing Kitty on the sofa, chants deeply) Dona nobis pacem._
_(The cigarette slips from Stephen 's fingers. Bloom picks it up and
throws it in the grate.)_
BLOOM: Don't smoke. You ought to eat. Cursed dog I met. _(To Zoe)_ You
have nothing?
ZOE: Is he hungry?
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 kaputt.
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. Pandybat.
_(Twice loudly a pandybat cracks, the coffin of the pianola
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