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3H J A M E S [ 1909-1911 ]thanked him and warily asked whether January 20 was really the publicationday, 62Roberts brusquely informed him that there had been anotherpostponement. Joyce wrote on January 22, 1911, to Stanislaus,with whom he was temporarily not on speaking terms, i know the nameand tradition of my country too well to be surprised at receiving threescrawled lines in return for five years of constant service to my art andconstant waiting and indifference and disloyalty in return for the 150,000francs of continental money which I have deflected into the pockets ofhungry Irishmen and women since they drove me out of their hospitablebog six years ago.' 63(The reference was to his agency for Irish tweeds.)Then Roberts wrote on February 9, 1911, that he was still worried aboutivy Day,' and wanted Joyce to remove all references to the king. At thispoint Joyce consulted a Dublin solicitor, probably his father's friendGeorge Lidwell. The solicitor said that he should accede to Roberts'swishes, since, not being officially domiciled in the United Kingdom, hewould have to deposit £100 in order to sue Maunsel & Co. for breach ofcontract, and would probably get no satisfaction from a Dublin jury ifthe passage 'could be taken as offensive in any way to the late King.' 64His helplessness made Joyce bitter, and his bitterness got on Nora'snerves. One morning they had an unpleasant exchange because Joycewanted to stay in bed with Nora after the maid had come. She refused. 65Joyce took the manuscript of the unfinished A Portrait of the Artist andthrew it into the fire. Fortunately Eileen came in just at the moment,saw what he had done, and rescued the papers from the flames,slightlyburning her fingersas she did so. The next morning her brother cameback from a store and presented her with three bars of different-coloredsoap and a new pair of mittens, saying gratefully, 'There are pages here Icould never have re-written. 66But so long as Dubliners was unpublishedhe could not finish A Portrait, and the smudged, invaluable pages wereput aside, tied up in an old sheet. 67Roberts was in one of his prolonged and infuriating silences. On July10, 1911, Joyce wrote angrily to say, if no reply is sent me to this letterI shall consider that you have no intention of publishing the book andshall communicate the whole matter of the dispute in a circular letter tothe Irish press and at the same time take legal action against you throughmy solicitor in Dublin for breach of contract.' 68At the same time hewrote to Joseph Hone asking his intercession. Hone was traveling on thecontinent when the letter, after many delays, reached him; he was not ina position to change Roberts's mind. On August 1 Joyce had the notionof writing to George V for help in the dispute. Eccentric as the plan was,it was consonant with his feeling, as Herbert Gorman points out, thatappeals should always be made to the 'top dog.' 69At Clongowes he hadappealed to the rector, at University College to the president. Now headdressed himself earnestly to His Majesty. He enclosed a printed proofof the story ivy Day' with the doubtful passage marked, and begged him