"Alo! Bonjour"
("Hello! Good day!") appears to be Egan's friendly response as
he looks up from his nap to see that Stephen has arrived. Both
words are colloquial French greetings, though the first is
usually spelled allo or allô.
From Kevin nodding off, Stephen's mind goes to another French
nap—the faun's midday revery in Mallarmé's poem—and then back to his own
stretched-out legs. Inside Mulligan's shoe is a "foot I
dislove. But you were delighted when Esther Osvalt's shoe went
on you: girl I knew in Paris. Tiens, quel
petit pied!" The French means, "Look, what a
small foot!"
From such a master of verisimilitude as Joyce proves himself
in Ulysses, "girl I knew in Paris" is disconcerting.
Would Stephen really explain to himself who Esther Osvalt was?
