Page 756 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

elegant Latin poet has handed down to us in the pages of
his Metamorphoses. The impression made by his words
was immediate but shortlived. It was effaced as easily as it
had been evoked by an allocution from Mr Candidate

Mulligan in that vein of pleasantry which none better than
he knew how to affect, postulating as the supremest object
of desire a nice clean old man. Contemporaneously, a
heated argument having arisen between Mr Delegate
Madden and Mr Candidate Lynch regarding the juridical
and theological dilemma created in the event of one
Siamese twin predeceasing the other, the difficulty by
mutual consent was referred to Mr Canvasser Bloom for
instant submittal to Mr Coadjutor Deacon Dedalus.
Hitherto silent, whether the better to show by
preternatural gravity that curious dignity of the garb with
which he was invested or in obedience to an inward
voice, he delivered briefly and, as some thought,
perfunctorily the ecclesiastical ordinance forbidding man
to put asunder what God has joined.
But Malachias’ tale began to freeze them with horror.
He conjured up the scene before them. The secret panel
beside the chimney slid back and in the recess appeared ...
Haines! Which of us did not feel his flesh creep! He had a
portfolio full of Celtic literature in one hand, in the other

755 of 1305