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, patiently each night in the act of brief
genuflection and nocturnal prayer and ambitious meditation.

In what ultimate ambition had all concurrent and consecutive ambitions
now coalesced?

Not to inherit by right of primogeniture, gavelkind or borough English,
or possess in perpetuity an extensive demesne 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 bungalowshaped 2 storey dwellinghouse of
southerly aspect, surmounted by vane and lightning conductor, connected
with the earth, with porch covered by parasitic plants (ivy or Virginia
creeper), halldoor, olive green, with smart carriage finish and neat
doorbrasses, stucco front with gilt tracery at eaves and gable, rising,
if possible, upon a gentle eminence with agreeable prospect from balcony
with stone pillar parapet over unoccupied and unoccupyable interjacent
pastures and standing in 5 or 6 acres of its own ground, at such
a distance from the nearest public thoroughfare as to render its
houselights visible at night above and through a quickset hornbeam hedge
of topiary cutting, situate at a given point not less than 1 statute
mile from the periphery of the metropolis, within a time limit of not
more than 15 minutes from tram or train line (e.g., Dundrum, south, or
Sutton, north, both localities equally reported by trial to resemble the
terrestrial poles in being favourable climates for phthisical