Page:Ulysses, 1922.djvu/507

504 how much he could see? Did he not lie in bed, the gross boar, gloating over a nauseous fragment of wellused toilet paper presented to him by a nasty harlot, stimulated by gingerbread and a postal order?

(Whistles loudly.) Say! What was the most revolting piece of obscenity in all your career of crime? Go the whole hog. Puke it out. Be candid for once.

Don’t ask me: Our mutual faith. Pleasants street. I only thought the half of the… I swear on my sacred oath…

(Peremptorily.) Answer. Repugnant wretch! I insist on knowing. Tell me something to amuse me, smut or a bloody good ghoststory or a line of poetry, quick, quick, quick! Where? How? What time? With how many? I give you just three seconds. One! Two! Thr…!

(Docile, gurgles.) I rererepugnosed in rerererepugnant…

(Imperiously.) O get out, you skunk! Hold your tongue! Speak when you’re spoken to.

(Bows.) Master! Mistress! Mantamer!

(Satirically.) By day you will souse and bat our smelling underclothes, also when we ladies are unwell, and swab out our latrines with dress pinned up and a dishclout tied to your tail. Won’t that be nice? (He places a ruby ring on her finger.) And there now! With this ring I thee own. Say, thank you, mistress.

Thank you, mistress.