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[ Aetat 38 ] J O Y C E 487irritation as well as shyness, stiff and unbending with the people he met.They were impressed enough to help him nonetheless.The firstto give Joyce material assistance was Madame Bloch-Savitsky.She and her husband offered him in mid-July a flat,rent-free, at 5 ruede l'Assomption, in Passy, close to the Bois de Boulogne. 11It was a smallthree-room flat,with two bedrooms facing the street, a storage room, anda tiny kitchen. In this 'matchbox,' as Joyce called it, the family stayedfrom July 15 to November 1. Lucia complained, 'All the furniture in thisflat is just stuck together with spit.' 12A bed was lacking for Giorgio, andJoyce therefore paid a visit to Jenny Serruys, whom Pound had indoctrinatedwith the idea, 'You must help Joyce.' 13He came into her officeand gazed myopically at her. He needed a bed; she promised to findhimone, then forgot; Joyce reminded Pound, Pound reminded her, and shesent over a portable bed. 14A formal letter in what Wyndham Lewis called'staid, copybook French' arrived to thank her: 'Je vous remercie de votreinteret bienvedlant et vous prie d'agreer I 'assurance de ma parfaite consideration.'15Perfect consideration is more often accorded to a notary thanto a patron.Joyce and Mile Serruys had a number of such encounters. He waitedpatiently to see her if she happened to be busy, then adopted the stratagemof arriving at the inconvenient hour of 1 o'clock. 'I'm afraid I'minconveniencing you,' he would begin. 'Not at all,' she would replyefficiently, i'm just going. Let me give you a lift in a taxi.' During theshort ride to the Palais-Royal, where he always got out, he sadly disclosedhis affairs. His extreme dignity made borrowing a complicated and gravematter. A table to write on was needed; she had one sent over. (Whenhe moved to a furnished flat,he punctiliously returned it.) Where couldhe obtain sheets and blankets? How could he recover, a package of bookssent from Trieste, and inexplicably delayed? Or could she lend him moneyfor some noble triviality? He was later to thank her by saying, 'You neverattached any importance to small matters—a quality unusual in awoman.' 16When her fianceWilliam Aspenwall Bradley* was present, Joyce, whotook a quick liking to him, was more expansive. He was preoccupied withthe writing of Circe, and explained the episode, more to himself, as itseemed, than to them. He kept prodding them for hints and suggestions.Bradley happened to remark that General Grant's firstname was Ulysses,and Joyce wrote the fact down on his cuff.t Bradley added, 'He smokedbig cigars,' an item duly registered in the same place. Joyce lent Bradleyhis manuscript of the finalepisode and was eager to know his opinion.Sometimes, but rarely, they discussed other writers. Andre Gide was one* Bradley had written several books, including Old Christmas, a collection of folk tales,and had translated Remy de Gourmont. He was Paris agent for Harcourt, Brace and Co.t Molly Bloom remembers 'when General Ulysses Grant whoever he was or did supposedto be some great fellow landed off the ship . . .' Ulysses (757 [897]).