A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
page 40 of 332 (12%)
page 40 of 332 (12%)
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--They are the Lord's anointed, Dante said. They are an honour to their
country. --Tub of guts, said Mr Dedalus coarsely. He has a handsome face, mind you, in repose. You should see that fellow lapping up his bacon and cabbage of a cold winter's day. O Johnny! He twisted his features into a grimace of heavy bestiality and made a lapping noise with his lips. --Really, Simon, you should not speak that way before Stephen. It's not right. --O, he'll remember all this when he grows up, said Dante hotly--the language he heard against God and religion and priests in his own home. --Let him remember too, cried Mr Casey to her from across the table, the language with which the priests and the priests' pawns broke Parnell's heart and hounded him into his grave. Let him remember that too when he grows up. --Sons of bitches! cried Mr Dedalus. When he was down they turned on him to betray him and rend him like rats in a sewer. Low-lived dogs! And they look it! By Christ, they look it! --They behaved rightly, cried Dante. They obeyed their bishops and their priests. Honour to them! --Well, it is perfectly dreadful to say that not even for one day in the year, said Mrs Dedalus, can we be free from these dreadful |
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