Ulysses

"--Thank you, sir, Stephen said, gathering the money together with shy haste and putting it all in a pocket of his trousers.

--No thanks at all, Mr Deasy said. You have earned it.

Stephen's hand, free again, went back to the hollow shells. Symbols too of beauty and of power. A lump in my pocket. Symbols soiled by greed and misery.

--Don't carry it like that, Mr Deasy said. You'll pull it out somewhere and lose it. You just buy one of those machines. You'll find them very handy.

Answer something.

--Mine would be often empty, Stephen said.

The same room and hour, the same wisdom: and I the same. Three times now. Three nooses round me here. Well. I can break them this instant if I will.

--Because you don't save, Mr Deasy said, pointing his finger. You don't know what money is. Money is power, when you have lived as long as I have, I know, I know. If youth but knew. But what does Shakespeare say? Put but money in thy purse.

--Iago, Stephen murmured.

He lifted his gaze from the idle shells to the old man's stare.

--He knew what money was, Mr Deasy said. He made money. A poet but an Englishman too. Do you know what is the pride of the English? Do you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an Englishman's mouth?

The seas' ruler. His seacold eyes looked on the empty bay: history is to blame: on me and on my words, unhating.

--That on his empire, Stephen said, the sun never sets.

--Ba! Mr Deasy cried. That's not English. A French Celt said that. He tapped his savingsbox against his thumbnail.

--I will tell you, he said solemnly, what is his proudest boast. I paid my way.

Good man, good man.

--I paid my way. I never borrowed a shilling in my life. Can you feel that? I owe nothing. Can you?

Mulligan, nine pounds, three pairs of socks, one pair brogues, ties. Curran, ten guineas. McCann, one guinea. Fred Ryan, two shillings. Temple, two lunches. Russell, one guinea, Cousins, ten shillings, Bob Reynolds, half a guinea, Kohler, three guineas, Mrs McKernan, five weeks' bard. The lump I have is useless.

--For the moment, no, Stephen answered.

Mr Deasy laughed with rich delight, putting back his savingsbox.

--I new you couldn't, he said joyously. But one day you must feel it. We are a generous people but we must also be just.

--I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make us so unhappy.

-James Joyce