Everyone thought the world of her for her gentle ways. It was Gerty who turned off the gas at the main every night and it was Gerty who tacked up on the wall of that place where she never forgot every fortnight the chlorate of lime Mr. Tunney the grocer's Christmas almanac the picture of halcyon days where a young gentleman in the costume they used to wear then with a three cornered hat was offering a bunch of flowers to his ladylove with oldtime chivalry through her lattice window. You could see there was a story behind it. The colours were done something lovely. She was in a soft clinging white in a studied attitude and the gentleman was in chocolate and he looked a thorough aristocrat. She often looked at them dreamily when there for a certain purpose and felt her own arms that were white and soft just like hers with the sleeves back and thought about those times because she had found out in Walker's pronouncing dictionary that belonged to grandpapa Giltrap about the halcyon days what they meant.


JAMES JOYCE, Irlanda,
in Ulysses, 1922



Todos a tinham em grande conta pelos seus modos delicados. Era Gerty que desligava todas as noites o gás na conduta e era Gerty que pregava tachas na parede do local onde nunca esquecia de quinze em quinze dias a cal Mr.Tunney a mercearia o almanaque de Natal a imagem de dias idílicos em que um jovem com o fato que então se usava e chapéu de três bicos oferecia um ramo de flores à amada com cortesia antiga através da gelosia. Via-se que havia uma história por trás. As cores davam um efeito lindo. Ela vestia de branco suave cingido com uma atitude estudada e o jovem vestia de castanho chocolate e parecia um perfeito aristocrata. Olhava-os muitas vezes sonhadora quando ali ia para qualquer fim e sentia os seus próprios braços que eram brancos e macios tal como os dela com as mangas para trás e pensava nesses tempos porque descobrira no Walker dicionário com pronúncia que pertencia ao avô Giltrap o que eram dias idílicos o que significavam.