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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