Page 881 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

LYSTER: (In quakergrey kneebreeches and broadbrimmed
hat, says discreetly) He is our friend. I need not mention
names. Seek thou the light.

(He corantos by. Best enters in hairdresser’s attire, shinily
laundered, his locks in curlpapers. He leads John Eglinton who
wears a mandarin’s kimono of Nankeen yellow, lizardlettered,
and a high pagoda hat.)
BEST: (Smiling, lifts the hat and displays a shaven poll from
the crown of which bristles a pigtail toupee tied with an orange
topknot) I was just beautifying him, don’t you know. A
thing of beauty, don’t you know, Yeats says, or I mean,
Keats says.
JOHN EGLINTON: (Produces a greencapped dark lantern
and flashes it towards a corner: with carping accent) Esthetics
and cosmetics are for the boudoir. I am out for truth. Plain
truth for a plain man. Tanderagee wants the facts and
means to get them.
(In the cone of the searchlight behind the coalscuttle, ollave,
holyeyed, the bearded figure of Mananaun Maclir broods, chin on
knees. He rises slowly. A cold seawind blows from his druid
mouth. About his head writhe eels and elvers. He is encrusted
with weeds and shells. His right hand holds a bicycle pump. His
left hand grasps a huge crayfish by its two talons.)

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