âNo, said Heron, Dedalus is a model youth. He doesnât smoke and he doesnât go to bazaars and he doesnât flirt and he doesnât damn anything or damn all.
Stephen shook his head and smiled in his rivalâs flushed and mobile face, beaked like a birdâs. He had often thought it strange that Vincent Heron had a birdâs face as well as a birdâs name. A shock of pale hair lay on the forehead like a ruffled crest: the forehead was narrow and bony and a thin hooked nose stood out between the closeset prominent eyes which were light and inexpressive. The rivals were school friends. They sat together in class, knelt together in the chapel, talked together after beads over their lunches. As the fellows in number one were undistinguished dullards, Stephen and Heron had been during the year the virtual heads of the school. It was they who went up to the rector together to ask for a free day or to get a fellow off.
âO by the way, said Heron suddenly, I saw your governor going in.