The next scene opens with Stephen back at Clongowes, overhearing a conversation about the punishment awaiting some students who stole some altar wine from the sacristy. Thinking about the dark, silent sacristy and sacred things in general, Stephen suddenly envisions Eileen Vance, a young girl with hands like ivory, so smooth that they remind him of two worshipful phrases that he repeats during the Litany to the Blessed Virgin — "Tower of Ivory" and "House of Gold." Suddenly, Stephen's musings are interrupted by a call to class.
During Father Arnall's Latin lesson, Father Dolan, the prefect of studies, who wields the menacing pandybat in search of "lazy idle little loafers," appears. Dolan notices that Fleming and Stephen are not doing their lessons. After disciplining Fleming, Dolan approaches Stephen, who explains that he has been excused temporarily from his assignments because he broke his glasses.
Refusing to believe that Stephen broke them accidentally, the cynical, sadistic Dolan commands the boy to put out his hands for "pandying." This punishment, according to Dolan, is demanded for idleness and schoolboy tricks. Afterward, Stephen feels humiliated and angered by the unjust cruelty. His classmates are angered too; they believe that Stephen should report the prefect's injustice to the rector of the school.
Stephen briefly considers the consequences of such a bold action; then he sets out, following the winding corridors that lead to "the castle." He confronts the rector with the truth about the broken glasses, and, to Stephen's amazement, the rector, Father Conmee, is both sympathetic and kind; he promises to resolve the situation with Father Dolan on Stephen's behalf. Comforted and exhilarated by the results of the meeting, Stephen rushes from the gloomy corridors of the castle to be greeted by his classmates as a leader and a hero. They lock hands and lift him heavenward. Metaphorically, Stephen is flying, momentarily free of fear and constraint.
