1n6xZiV

516 J A M E S [ 1921-1922 ]Joyce did so by quoting Vedaine, upon which the door was immediatelythrown open for le poete. 76In the spring and summer of 1921 Joyce added some new Americanfriends. The first,and strangest, was Dr. Joseph Collins, later to write'that pretentious book' (as Joyce called it), 77The Doctor Looks at Literature.Collins admired A Portrait and wrote to two Americans in Paris,who had worked under him in the Red Cross during the war, that heunderstood Joyce was living blind and poor in Paris. He asked them tolook him up, relieve any immediate need, and arrange a meeting betweenhim and Collins. So Richard Wallace, a book illustrator, and MyronNutting, a painter, came into Joyce's life. Soon they all had lunchtogether and Joyce lent Collins the Little Review installments of Ulysses.Collins groaned to Nutting next day, i have in my fileswriting by theinsane just as good as this,' and gave a medical explanation of the deteriorationof the artist's braijj^&fesfEt^GQ, however, he began to thinkrioration or rue amsi» uvaiv^f^-^a^^ , _ ^better of the book. Joyce h«ta Molly Bloonymemorialize Collins's mannerin Ulysses: 'Floey made me^Q^totliatjdj^ld stick Dr Collins for womensdiseases on Pembroke road your vagina he called it I suppose thats howhe got all the gilt mirrors and carpets getting round tlM«e"TlcrT>pnes offStephens green. . . .'At the same time he hoped Molly's commentswould not offend Collins, and pointed out that they coriclTIaed with acompliment: i wouldn't trust him too far to give me chloroform or Godknows what else still I liked him when he sat down to write the thing outffrowning so severe his nose intelligent. . . .' 79The two younger Americans and their wives were better suited by temperamentthan Collin^rounderstabd Joyce's work. Joyce used to teasethem by saying that Molly Blooprwas sitting at another table in therestaurant, and they^v©uld--t^rro guess which woman she was, alwayswithout success. This game he continued for years. Another was to askthem, 'Who was the man in the mackintosh?' in Ulysses. * 80It wasthrough the Wallaces that Joyce got an important hint for Ulysses. Oneday in July he visited them at their small country house at Chatillon,and happened to overhear a conversation between Mrs. Wallace and ayoung painter. The conversation went on and on, Mrs. Wallace repeatingthe word 'yes' over and over in different tones of voice. Joyce suddenlyrealized he had found the word he needed to begin and end thelast episode of Ulysses, Penelope, as many years later he would discoverwith the same excitement that the finalword of Finnegans Wake shouldbe the. He wrote at once to Larbaud, 'Vous m'avez demande une foisquelle serait la demiere parole d'Ulysse. La voild: yes.'t 81The summer did not pass altogether smoothly. Early in July Joyce waswith McAlmon at the Brasserie Lutetia. The approaching publication of* Stuart Gilbert says it was Wetherup, a disreputable friend of John Joyce,t 'You asked me one time what the last word of Ulysses would be. Here it is: yes.' It isprobably only coincidence that Monteverdi's II Ritorno d'Ulisse also ends with 'Si.'