Wilting elopement fan

• wilting elopement fan: "the fan which ALP carried when eloping with the young HCE, apparently in place of the traditional bridal bouquet, now preserved - albeit 'wilting' - as a sentimental memento." (John Gordon, Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary, p 25)

• elopement fan: compare this with a passage in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 8, when Jean Valjean is shown to the "bridal suite" in Thénardier's tavern:

On the chimney-piece, under a glass globe, stood a woman's head-dress in silver wire and orange flowers.

"And what is this?" resumed the stranger.

"That, sir," said Thenardier, "is my wife's wedding bonnet."

The traveller surveyed the object with a glance which seemed to say, "There really was a time, then, when that monster was a maiden?"

Thenardier lied, however. When he had leased this paltry building for the purpose of converting it into a tavern, he had found this chamber decorated in just this manner, and had purchased the furniture and obtained the orange flowers at second hand, with the idea that this would cast a graceful shadow on "his spouse," and would result in what the English call respectability for his house.