RUDY: (GAZES, UNSEEING, INTO BLOOM'S EYES AND GOES ON READING, KISSING,
SMILING. HE HAS A DELICATE MAUVE FACE. ON HIS SUIT HE HAS DIAMOND AND
RUBY BUTTONS. IN HIS FREE LEFT HAND HE HOLDS A SLIM IVORY CANE WITH A
VIOLET BOWKNOT. A WHITE LAMBKIN PEEPS OUT OF HIS WAISTCOAT POCKET.)
-- III --
Preparatory to anything else Mr Bloom brushed off the greater bulk of the
shavings and handed Stephen the hat and ashplant and bucked him up
generally in orthodox Samaritan fashion which he very badly needed. His
(Stephen's) mind was not exactly what you would call wandering but a bit
unsteady and on his expressed desire for some beverage to drink Mr Bloom
in view of the hour it was and there being no pump of Vartry water
available for their ablutions let alone drinking purposes hit upon an
expedient by suggesting, off the reel, the propriety of the cabman's
shelter, as it was called, hardly a stonesthrow away near Butt bridge
where they might hit upon some drinkables in the shape of a milk and soda
or a mineral. But how to get there was the rub. For the nonce he was
rather nonplussed but inasmuch as the duty plainly devolved upon him to
take some measures on the subject he pondered suitable ways and means
during which Stephen repeatedly yawned. So far as he could see he was
rather pale in the face so that it occurred to him as highly advisable to
get a conveyance of some description which would answer in their then
condition, both of them being e.d.ed, particularly Stephen, always
assuming that there was such a thing to be found. Accordingly after a few
such preliminaries as brushing, in spite of his having forgotten to take
up his rather soapsuddy handkerchief after it had done yeoman service in
the shaving line, they both walked together along Beaver street or, more
properly, lane as far as the farrier's and the distinctly fetid
atmosphere of the livery stables at the corner of Montgomery street where
they made tracks to the left from thence debouching into Amiens street
round by the corner of Dan Bergin's. But as he confidently anticipated
there was not a sign of a Jehu plying for hire anywhere to be seen except
a fourwheeler, probably engaged by some fellows inside on the spree,
outside the North Star hotel and there was no symptom of its budging a
quarter of an inch when Mr Bloom, who was anything but a professional
whistler, endeavoured to hail it by emitting a kind of a whistle, holding
his arms arched over his head, twice.
|