Just to keep them going till the insurance is cleared up.

Yes, yes, Mr Dedalus said dubiously. Is that the eldest boy in front?

Yes, Ned Lambert said, with the wife’s brother. John Henry Menton is behind. He put down his name for a quid.

I’ll engage he did, Mr Dedalus said. I often told poor Paddy he ought to mind that job. John Henry is not the worst in the world.

How did he lose it? Ned Lambert asked. Liquor, what?

Many a good man’s fault, Mr Dedalus said with a sigh.

They halted about the door of the mortuary chapel. Mr Bloom stood behind the boy with the wreath looking down at his sleekcombed hair and at the slender furrowed neck inside his brandnew collar.