It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all [390] round everything. It was very big to think about everything and [391] everywhere. Only God could do that. He tried to think what a big [392] thought that must be; but he could only think of God. God was God’s [393] name just as his name was Stephen. DIEU was the French for God and that [394] was God’s name too; and when anyone prayed to God and said DIEU then [395] God knew at once that it was a French person that was praying. But, [396] though there were different names for God in all the different [397] languages in the world and God understood what all the people who [398] prayed said in their different languages, still God remained always the [399] same God and God’s real name was God. [400] [401] It made him very tired to think that way. It made him feel his head [402] very big. He turned over the flyleaf and looked wearily at the green [403] round earth in the middle of the maroon clouds. He wondered which was [404] right, to be for the green or for the maroon, because Dante had ripped [405] the green velvet back off the brush that was for Parnell one day with [406] her scissors and had told him that Parnell was a bad man. He wondered [407] if they were arguing at home about that. That was called politics.
[408] There were two sides in it: Dante was on one side and his father and Mr
[409] Casey were on the other side but his mother and uncle Charles were on
[410] no side. Every day there was something in the paper about it.
[411]
[412] It pained him that he did not know well what politics meant and that he
[413] did not know where the universe ended. He felt small and weak. When
[414] would he be like the fellows in poetry and rhetoric? They had big
[415] voices and big boots and they studied trigonometry. That was very far
[416] away. First came the vacation and then the next term and then vacation
[417] again and then again another term and then again the vacation. It was
[418] like a train going in and out of tunnels and that was like the noise of
[419] the boys eating in the refectory when you opened and closed the flaps
[420] of the ears. Term, vacation; tunnel, out; noise, stop. How far away it
[421] was! It was better to go to bed to sleep. Only prayers in the chapel
[422] and then bed. He shivered and yawned. It would be lovely in bed after
[423] the sheets got a bit hot. First they were so cold to get into. He
[424] shivered to think how cold they were first. But then they got hot and
[425] then he could sleep. It was lovely to be tired. He yawned again. Night
[426] prayers and then bed: he shivered and wanted to yawn. It would be
[427] lovely in a few minutes. He felt a warm glow creeping up from the cold
[428] shivering sheets, warmer and warmer till he felt warm all over, ever so
[429] warm and yet he shivered a little and still wanted to yawn.
[430]
[431] The bell rang for night prayers and he filed out of the study hall
[432] after the others and down the staircase and along the corridors to the
[433] chapel. The corridors were darkly lit and the chapel was darkly lit.
[434] Soon all would be dark and sleeping. There was cold night air in the
[435] chapel and the marbles were the colour the sea was at night. The sea
[436] was cold day and night: but it was colder at night. It was cold and
[437] dark under the seawall beside his father’s house. But the kettle would
[438] be on the hob to make punch.