Page 757 - ULYSSES
P. 757
Ulysses
a phial marked Poison. Surprise, horror, loathing were
depicted on all faces while he eyed them with a ghostly
grin. I anticipated some such reception, he began with an
eldritch laugh, for which, it seems, history is to blame.
Yes, it is true. I am the murderer of Samuel Childs. And
how I am punished! The inferno has no terrors for me.
This is the appearance is on me. Tare and ages, what way
would I be resting at all, he muttered thickly, and I
tramping Dublin this while back with my share of songs
and himself after me the like of a soulth or a bullawurrus?
My hell, and Ireland’s, is in this life. It is what I tried to
obliterate my crime. Distractions, rookshooting, the Erse
language (he recited some), laudanum (he raised the phial
to his lips), camping out. In vain! His spectre stalks me.
Dope is my only hope ... Ah! Destruction! The black
panther! With a cry he suddenly vanished and the panel
slid back. An instant later his head appeared in the door
opposite and said: Meet me at Westland Row station at
ten past eleven. He was gone. Tears gushed from the eyes
of the dissipated host. The seer raised his hand to heaven,
murmuring: The vendetta of Mananaun! The sage
repeated: Lex talionis. The sentimentalist is he who would
enjoy without incurring the immense debtorship for a
thing done. Malachias, overcome by emotion, ceased. The
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