The last reading stopped at: “pinnacles of gold.” (11.662)
Summary:
In the Ormond hotel saloon, Simon Dedalus and Father Cowley are with Ben Dollard, who is playing the piano. The three are also reminiscing about a past incidence at which Goodwin, a piano teacher, was playing the piano not so well and how Ben Dollard had to borrow a pair of trousers, albeit a pair too tight, from Bloom. (When they were living in Holles Street, Molly and Bloom collected and sold secondhand clothes and theatrical costumes.) Their talk moves to Molly, her looks, her parentage.
Bloom and Richie Goulding are having their dinner in the restaurant. Dinners fit for princes (11.523). While having dinner, Bloom's thoughts turn to Molly and to his conversation with her that morning. By sheer coincidence (or did he hear the music from the saloon and recognize the voices?) Bloom is also thinking of the night when he and Molly lent Dollard a dress suit for the concert. Thoughts of Molly make Bloom remember again the day the two had spent on the Howth. There is a very nice sentence here: We are their harps. I. He. Old. Young (11.582). Is Bloom thinking of how women (like Molly) play with men (like himself/old and like Boylan/young)?
More customers enter the Ormond bar. Urged by his friends to sing, Simon Dedalus declines at first. As they are discussing about the music, Boylan is jaunting jingly; Bloom and Goulding are having dinner.
