Page 1098 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

hand mechanically into the back pocket of his trousers to
obtain his latchkey.
Was it there?
It was in the corresponding pocket of the trousers

which he had worn on the day but one preceding.
Why was he doubly irritated?
Because he had forgotten and because he remembered
that he had reminded himself twice not to forget.
What were then the alternatives before the,
premeditatedly (respectively) and inadvertently, keyless
couple?
To enter or not to enter. To knock or not to knock.
Bloom’s decision?
A stratagem. Resting his feet on the dwarf wall, he
climbed over the area railings, compressed his hat on his
head, grasped two points at the lower union of rails and
stiles, lowered his body gradually by its length of five feet
nine inches and a half to within two feet ten inches of the
area pavement and allowed his body to move freely in
space by separating himself from the railings and crouching
in preparation for the impact of the fall.
Did he fall?
By his body’s known weight of eleven stone and four
pounds in avoirdupois measure, as certified by the

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