Page 903 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

THE FAN: (Folded akimbo against her waist) Is me her
was you dreamed before? Was then she him you us since
knew? Am all them and the same now we?

(Bella approaches, gently tapping with the fan.)
BLOOM: (Wincing) Powerful being. In my eyes read
that slumber which women love.
THE FAN: (Tapping) We have met. You are mine. It is
fate.
BLOOM: (Cowed) Exuberant female. Enormously I
desiderate your domination. I am exhausted, abandoned,
no more young. I stand, so to speak, with an unposted
letter bearing the extra regulation fee before the too late
box of the general postoffice of human life. The door and
window open at a right angle cause a draught of thirtytwo
feet per second according to the law of falling bodies. I
have felt this instant a twinge of sciatica in my left glutear
muscle. It runs in our family. Poor dear papa, a widower,
was a regular barometer from it. He believed in animal
heat. A skin of tabby lined his winter waistcoat. Near the
end, remembering king David and the Sunamite, he
shared his bed with Athos, faithful after death. A dog’s
spittle as you probably ... (He winces) Ah!

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