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684 J A M E S [ 1932-1935 ]evil influence on my children. But what are they doing away from thatevil influence? On the other hand what can I honestly ask them to comeback to? Paris is like myself a haughty ruin or if you like a decayed reveller.And any time I turn on the radio I hear some British politician mumblinginanities or his German cousin shouting and yelling like a madman. PerhapsIreland and the U.S. are the safe places. And perhaps this is wherethe gas is really going to be turned on. Well, so be it. The motto undermy coat of arms, however, is Mors aut honorabilis vita. . . . 1 5 4Joyce had not wept in a letter since he suspected Nora of infidelity in1909. Though not so blind as Homer, nor so exiled as Dante, he hadreached his life's nadir. 'People talk of my influence on my daughter,' hesaid to Mrs. Jolas, 'but what about her influence on me?' 155His exasperationand despair exfoliated like a black flower.There were occasional lightenings. When two prowlers invaded hissister's bungalow in Bray without, however, findinganything of value,he wrote Eileen to ask what any burglar could hope to get by enteringthe house of any member of the Joyce family. 156He wrote to his daughter,gleefully speculating that the marauders must have been after 'the arttreasures, cases with gold coins and precious stuffs which doubtless it [thebungalow] contained. There are still idealists, apparently. . . .' 157Luciagot on well enough with Eileen's daughters, her cousins Boschenka andNora, but they were not intended to be nurses and had great troublesaving her from serious harm. Once she overdosed herself with aspirin,another time she built a turf fireon the bungalow floorand explainedthat she wanted to smell burning turf. Lucia's obsession with her fatherwas all too clear; she sent him a telegram to say, 'You look like BrayHead', 158which he chose to interpret lightly and rejoined, i believe youto be in Ireland but you are also in Norway. The Norwegians foundedthe city of Wicklow which means: Wick, little harbour, and low, lighthouse.'159Lucia appealed to him over Eileen's head for money and foundfault with the care she received. Joyce requested his friend Madame Bailly,who was visiting her native Ireland too, to findout what was happening,and also asked C. P. Curran and Michael Healy to check on Lucia.Their letters alarmed him: it appeared that Lucia decided on her own toleave Bray and stay with Kathleen Barnacle in Galway; she came to Dublinand by coincidence met Kathleen, who was in Dublin for an operation,at the Post Office. 160They greeted each other warmly, but Kathleenhad to go to the hospital. Lucia then led Healy (a very old man withonly a few months to live)* a chase for six days around Dublin, whichended in a police station where the guards mercifully detained her. Heraunts Eva and Florence went to rescue her and were staggered by herdisheveled appearance. Lucia asked to be put into a nursing home, and* Healy died November 7, 1935.