Complete Works of James Joyce (308 page)

Read Complete Works of James Joyce Online

Authors: Unknown

RICHARD

And some others.

ROBERT

(Lightly, uneasily.)
You mean the women. I have no remorse of conscience. Maybe you have. We had two keys on those occasions.
(Maliciously.)
Have you?

RICHARD

(Irritated.)
For you it was all quite natural?

ROBERT

For me it is quite natural to kiss a woman whom I like. Why not? She is beautiful for me.

RICHARD

(Toying with the lounge cushion.)
Do you kiss everything that is beautiful for you?

ROBERT

Everything — if it can be kissed.
(He takes up a flat stone which lies on the table.)
This stone, for instance. It is so cool, so polished, so delicate, like a woman’s temple. It is silent, it suffers our passion; and it is beautiful.
(He places it against his lips.)
And so I kiss it because it is beautiful. And what is a woman? A work of nature, too, like a stone or a flower or a bird. A kiss is an act of homage.

556

RICHARD

It is an act of union between man and woman. Even if we are often led to desire through the sense of beauty can you say that the beautiful is what we desire?

ROBERT

(Pressing the stone to his forehead.)
You will give me a headache if you make me think today. I cannot think today. I feel too natural, too common. After all, what is most attractive in even the most beautiful woman?

RICHARD

What?

ROBERT

Not those qualities which she has and other women have not but the qualities which she has in common with them. I mean... the commonest.
(Turning over the stone, he presses the other side to his forehead.)
I mean how her body develops heat when it is pressed, the movement of her blood, how quickly she changes by digestion what she eats into — what shall be nameless.
(Laughing.)
I am very common today. Perhaps that idea never struck you?

RICHARD

(Drily.)
Many ideas strike a man who has lived nine years with a woman.

ROBERT

Yes. I suppose they do.... This beautiful cool stone does me good. Is it a paperweight or a cure for headache?

RICHARD

Bertha brought it home one day from the strand. She, too, says that it is beautiful.

ROBERT

(Lays down the stone quietly.)
She is right.

(He raises his glass, and drinks. A pause.)

RICHARD

Is that all you wanted to say to me?

ROBERT

(Quickly.)
There is something else. The vicechancellor sends you, through me, an invitation for tonight — to dinner at his house. You know where he lives?
(Richard nods.)
I thought you might have forgotten. Strictly private, of course. He wants to meet you again and sends you a very warm invitation.

557

RICHARD

For what hour?

ROBERT

Eight. But, like yourself, he is free and easy about time. Now, Richard, you must go there. That is all. I feel tonight will be the turningpoint in your life. You will live here and work here and think here and be honoured here — among our people.

RICHARD

(Smiling.)
I can almost see two envoys starting for the United States to collect funds for my statue a hundred years hence.

ROBERT

(Agreeably.)
Once I made a little epigram about statues. All statues are of two kinds.
(He folds his arms across his chest.)
The statue which says:
How shall I get down?
and the other kind
(he unfolds his arms and extends his right arm, averting his head)
the statue which says:
In my time the dunghill was so high.

RICHARD

The second one for me, please.

ROBERT

(Lazily.)
Will you give me one of those long cigars of yours?

(Richard selects a Virginia cigar from the box on the table and hands it to him with the straw drawn out.)

ROBERT

(Lighting it.)
These cigars Europeanize me. If Ireland is to become a new Ireland she must first become European. And that is what you are here for, Richard. Some day we shall have to choose between England and Europe. I am a descendant of the dark foreigners: that is why I like to be here. I may be childish. But where else in Dublin can I get a bandit cigar like this or a cup of black coffee? The man who drinks black coffee is going to conquer Ireland. And now I will take just a half measure of that whisky, Richard, to show you there is no ill feeling.

RICHARD

(Points.)
Help yourself.

ROBERT

(Does so.)
Thanks.
(He drinks and goes on as before.)
Then you yourself, the way you loll on that lounge: then your boy’s voice and also — Bertha herself. Do you allow me to call her that, Richard? I mean as an old friend of both of you.

558

RICHARD

O, why not?

ROBERT

(With animation.)
You have that fierce indignation which lacerated the heart of Swift. You have fallen from a higher world, Richard, and you are filled with fierce indignation, when you find that life is cowardly and ignoble. While I... shall I tell you?

RICHARD

By all means.

ROBERT

(Archly.)
I have come up from a lower world and I am filled with astonishment when I find that people have any redeeming virtue at all.

RICHARD

(Sits up suddenly and leans his elbows on the table.)
You are my friend, then?

ROBERT

(Gravely.)
I fought for you all the time you were away. I fought to bring you back. I fought to keep your place for you here. I will fight for you still because I have faith in you, the faith of a disciple in his master. I cannot say more than that. It may seem strange to you... Give me a match.

RICHARD

(Lights and offers him a match.)
There is a faith still stranger than the faith of the disciple in his master.

ROBERT

And that is?

RICHARD

The faith of a master in the disciple who will betray him.

ROBERT

The church lost a theologian in you, Richard. But I think you look too deeply into life.
(He rises, pressing Richard’s arm slightly.)
Be gay. Life is not worth it.

RICHARD

(Without rising.)
Are you going?

ROBERT

Must.
(He turns and says in a friendly tone.)
Then it is all arranged. We meet tonight at the vicechancellor’s. I shall look in at about ten. So you can have an hour or so to yourselves first. You will wait till I come?

559

RICHARD

Good.

ROBERT

One more match and I am happy.

(Richard strikes another match, hands it to him and rises also. Archie comes in by the door on the left, followed by Beatrice.)

ROBERT

Congratulate me, Beatty. I have won over Richard.

ARCHIE

(Crossing to the door on the right, calls.)
Mamma, Miss Justice is going.

BEATRICE

On what are you to be congratulated?

ROBERT

On a victory, of course.
(Laying his hand lightly on Richard’s shoulder.)
The descendant of Archibald Hamilton Rowan has come home.

RICHARD

I am not a descendant of Hamilton Rowan.

ROBERT

What matter?
(Bertha comes in from the right with a bowl of roses.)

BEATRICE

Has Mr Rowan...?

ROBERT

(Turning towards Bertha.)
Richard is coming tonight to the vicechancellor’s dinner. The fatted calf will be eaten: roast, I hope. And next session will see the descendant of a namesake of etcetera, etcetera in a chair of the university.
(He offers his hand.)
Good afternoon, Richard. We shall meet tonight.

RICHARD

(Touches his hand.)
At Philippi.

BEATRICE

(Shakes hands also.)
Accept my best wishes, Mr Rowan.

RICHARD

Thanks. But do not believe him.

ROBERT

(Vivaciously.)
Believe me, believe me.
(To Bertha.)
Good afternoon, Mrs Rowan.

BERTHA

(Shaking hands, candidly.)
I thank you, too.
(To Beatrice.)
You won’t stay to tea, Miss Justice?

560

BEATRICE

No, thank you.
(Takes leave of her.)
I must go. Good afternoon. Goodbye, Archie
(going).

ROBERT

Addio,
Archibald.

ARCHIE

Addio.

ROBERT

Wait, Beatty. I shall accompany you.

BEATRICE

(Going out on the right with Bertha.)
O, don’t trouble.

ROBERT

(Following her.)
But I insist — as a cousin.

(Bertha, Beatrice and Robert go out by the door on the left. Richard stands irresolutely near the table. Archie closes the door leading to the hall and, coming over to him, plucks him by the sleeve.)

ARCHIE

I say, pappie!

RICHARD

(Absently.)
What is it?

ARCHIE

I want to ask you a thing.

RICHARD

(Sitting on the end of the lounge, stares in front of him.)
What is it?

ARCHIE

Will you ask mamma to let me go out in the morning with the milkman?

RICHARD

With the milkman?