Page 1054 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

—But I suspect, Stephen interrupted, that Ireland must
be important because it belongs to me.
—What belongs, queried Mr Bloom bending, fancying
he was perhaps under some misapprehension. Excuse me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the latter portion. What was
it you ...?
Stephen, patently crosstempered, repeated and shoved
aside his mug of coffee or whatever you like to call it none
too politely, adding: 1170
—We can’t change the country. Let us change the
subject.
At this pertinent suggestion Mr Bloom, to change the
subject, looked down but in a quandary, as he couldn’t tell
exactly what construction to put on belongs to which
sounded rather a far cry. The rebuke of some kind was
clearer than the other part. Needless to say the fumes of
his recent orgy spoke then with some asperity in a curious
bitter way foreign to his sober state. Probably the homelife
to which Mr B attached the utmost importance had not
been all that was needful or he hadn’t been familiarised
with the right sort of people. With a touch of fear for the
young man beside him whom he furtively scrutinised with
an air of some consternation remembering he had just
come back from Paris, the eyes more especially reminding

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