But his long spell of leisure and liberty was drawing to its end. One evening his father came home full of news which kept his tongue busy all through dinner. Stephen had been awaiting his father’s return for there had been mutton hash that day and he knew that his father would make him dip his bread in the gravy. But he did not relish the hash for the mention of Clongowes had coated his palate with a scum of disgust.

―I walked bang into him, said Mr. Dedalus for the fourth time, just at the corner of the square.

―Then I suppose, said Mrs. Dedalus, he will be able to arrange it. I mean about Belvedere.

―Of course he will, said Mr. Dedalus. Don’t I tell you he’s provincial of the order now?