The Annotated "Ulysses"/Page 063

by James Joyce

of Photo Bits : Splendid masterpiece in art colours. Tea before you put milk in.
Not unlike her with her hair down : slimmer. Three and six I gave for the
frame. She said it would look nice over the bed. Naked nymphs : Greece :
and for instance all the people that lived then.

He turned the pages back.

— Metempsychosis, he said, is what the ancient Greeks called it. They
used to believe you could be changed into an animal or a tree, for instance.
What they called nymphs, for example.

Her spoon ceased to stir up the sugar. She gazed straight before her,
inhaling through her arched nostrils.

— There’s a smell of burn, she said. Did you leave anything on the
fire?

— The kidney! he cried suddenly.

He fitted the book roughly into his inner pocket and, stubbing his toes
against the broken commode, hurried out towards the smell, stepping hastily
down the stairs with a flurried stork’s legs. Pungent smoke shot up in an angry
jet from a side of the pan. By prodding a prong of the fork under the kidney
he detached it and turned it turtle on its back. Only a little burned. He tossed
it off the pan on to a plate and let the scanty brown gravy trickle over it.

Cup of tea now. He sat down, cut and buttered a slice of the loaf. He
shore away the burnt flesh and flung it to the cat. Then he put a forkful into his
mouth, chewing with discernment the toothsome pliant meat. Done to a turn.
A mouthful of tea. Then he cut away dies of bread, sopped one in the gravy
and put it in his mouth. What was that about some young student and a
picnic? He creased out the letter at his side, reading it slowly as he chewed,
sopping another die of bread in the gravy and raising it to his mouth.

Dearest Papli,

Thanks ever so much for the lovely birthday present. It suits me splendid.
Everyone says I’m quite the belle in my new tam. I got mummy’s lovely
box of creams and am writing, They are lovely. I am getting on swimming
in the photo business now. Mr Coghlan took one of me and Mrs will send
when developed. We did great biz yesterday. Fair day and all the beef to the
heels were in. We are going to lough Owel on Monday with a few friends
to make a scrap picnic. Give my love to mummy and to yourself a big kiss
and thanks. I hear them at the piano downstairs. There is to be a concert in the