he withdrew a hand from his coat tail to wax out one of his moustache ends. Mr. Casey leaned his head to one side and, smiling, tapped the gland of his neck with his fingers. And Stephen smiled too for he knew now that it was not true that Mr. Casey had a purse of silver in his throat. He smiled to think how the silvery noise which Mr. Casey used to make had deceived him. And when he had tried to open Mr. Casey’s hand to see if the purse of silver was hidden there he had seen that the fingers could not be straightened out: and Mr. Casey had told him that he had got those three cramped fingers making a birthday present for Queen Victoria. Mr. Casey tapped the gland of his neck and smiled at Stephen with sleepy eyes: and Mr. Dedalus said to him:
―Yes. Well now, that’s all right. O, we had a good walk, hadn’t we, John? Yes … I wonder if there’s any likelihood of dinner this evening. Yes … O, well now, we got a good breath of ozone round the Head today. Ay, bedad.