zoe (peering at bloom's palm.) gridiron. travels beyond the sea and marry money.
bloom wrong.
zoe (quickly.) o, i see. short little finger. henpecked husband. that wrong?
(black liz, a huge rooster hatching in a chalked circle, rises, stretches her wings and clucks.)black liz gara. klook. klook. klook.
(she sidles from her newlaid egg and waddles off.)bloom (points to his hand.) that weal there is an accident. fell and cut it twenty-two years ago. i was sixteen.
zoe i see, says the blind man. tell us news.
stephen see? moves to one great goal. i am twenty two too. sixteen years ago i twentytwo tumbled, twentytwo years ago he sixteen fell off his hobbyhorse. (he winces.) hurt my hand somewhere. must see a dentist. money?
(zoe whispers to florry. they giggle. bloom releases his hand and writes idly on the table in backhand, pencilling slow curves.)florry what?
(a hackneycar number three hundred and twentyfour, with a gallantbuttocked mare, driven by james barton, harmony avenue, donnybrook, trots past. blazes boylan and lenehan sprawl swaying on the sideseats. the ormond boots crouches behind on the axle. sadly over the crossblind lydia douce and mina kennedy gaze.)the boots (jogging, mocks them with thumb and wriggling wormfingers.) haw, haw, have you the horn?
(bronze by gold they whisper.)
zoe (to florry.) whisper.
(they whisper again.)
(over the well of the car blazes boylan leans, his boater straw set sideways, a red flower in his mouth. lenehan, in a yachtsman's cap and white shoes, officiously detaches a long hair from blazes boylan s shoulder.)lenehan ho! what do i here behold? were you brushing the cobwebs off a few quims?
boylan (seated, smiles.) plucking a turkey.
lenehan a good night's work.
boylan (holding up four thick bluntungulated fingers, winks.) blazes kate! up to sample or your money back. (he holds out a forefinger.) smell that.
lenehan (smells gleefully.) ah! lobster and mayonnaise. ah!
zoe and florry (laugh together.) ha ha ha ha.