(zoe higgins, a young whore in a sapphire slip, closed with three bronze buckles, a slim black velvet fillet round her throat, nods, trips down the steps and accosts him.)zoe are you looking for someone? he's inside with his friend.
bloom is this mrs mack's?
zoe no, eightyone. mrs cohen's. you might go farther and fare worse. mother slipperslapper. (familiarly.) she's on the job herself tonight with the vet, her tipster, that gives her all the winners and pays for her son in oxford. working overtime but her luck's turned today. (suspiciously.) you're not his father, are you?
bloom not i!
zoe you both in black. has little mousey any tickles tonight?
(his skin, alert, feels her fingertips approach. a hand slides over his left thigh.)zoe how's the nuts?
bloom off side. curiously they are on the right. heavier i suppose. one in a million my tailor, mesias, says.
zoe (in sudden alarm.) you've a hard chancre.
bloom not likely.
zoe i feel it.
(her hand slides into his left trouser pocket and brings out a hard black shrivelled potato. she regards it and bloom with dumb moist lips.)bloom a talisman. heirloom.
zoe for zoe? for keeps? for being so nice, eh?
(she puts the potato greedily into a pocket, then links his arm, cuddling him with supple warmth. he smiles uneasily. slowly, note by note, oriental music is played. he gazes in the tawny crystal of her eyes, ringed with kohol. his smile softens.)zoe you'll know me the next time.
bloom (forlornly.) i never loved a dear gazelle but it was sure to.
(gazelles are leaping, feeding on the mountains. near are lakes. round their shores file shadows black of cedargroves. aroma rises, a strong hairgrowth of resin. it burns, the orient, a sky of sapphire, cleft by the bronze flight of eagles. under it lies the womancity, nude, white, still, cool, in luxury. a fountain murmurs among damask roses. mammoth roses murmur of scarlet winegrapes. a wine of shame, lust, blood exudes, strangely murmuring.)zoe (murmuring singsong with the music, her odalisk lips lusciously smeared with salve of swinefat and rosewater.) schorach ani wenowach, benoith hierushaloim.