M’Coy. Get rid of him quickly. Take me out of my way. Hate company when you.
—Hello, Bloom. Where are you off to?
—Hello, M’Coy. Nowhere in particular.
—How’s the body?
—Fine. How are you?
—Just keeping alive, M’Coy said.
His eyes on the black tie and clothes he asked with low respect:
—Is there any… no trouble I hope? I see you’re…
—O, no, Mr Bloom said. Poor Dignam, you know. The funeral is today.
—To be sure, poor fellow. So it is. What time?
A photo it isn’t. A badge maybe.
—E… eleven, Mr Bloom answered.
—I must try to get out there, M’Coy said. Eleven, is it? I only heard it last night. Who was telling me? Holohan. You know Hoppy?
—I know.
Mr Bloom gazed across the road at the outsider drawn up before the door of the Grosvenor. The porter hoisted the valise up on the well. She stood still, waiting, while the man, husband, brother, like her, searched his pockets for change. Stylish kind of coat with that roll collar, warm for a day like this, looks like blanketcloth. Careless stand of her with her hands in those patch pockets. Like that haughty creature at the polo match. Women all for caste till you touch the spot. Handsome is and handsome does. Reserved about to yield. The honourable Mrs and Brutus is an honourable man. Possess her once take the starch out of her.
annotation:
It’s very compelling how quickly I get the sense of the tiresome nature of M’Coy. I know several people with this personality type, both meaningless in their conversation and always trying to judge who you are and what you’re about. I love how Bloom is polite but is almost immediately distracted by the scene across the street. The couple across the street makes a nice image for drawing. I looked up “outsider” and found out that it refers to a particular type of carriage that was very popular in Dublin at the time ( source ).
It’s also featured pretty heavily in several scenes from “The Quiet Man”. It’s more commonly called a jaunting car, perhaps because you would take it out on quick jaunts into the country, but it also may refer to the jaunty way the carriage rides. I looked for several video’s of jaunting cars and this one seemed to be pretty authentic.