MDDM Ch. 31 "Something's askew."

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> There's a marked shift in the tone of the conversation between Cha. and
> Jere. at the end of this chapter. Mason is becoming quite emotional as he
> rants about the way that the Scottish troops had come into the counties as
> peacekeepers in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, and connects
> this insurgence to the rise of exploitative mill-owners and the
> mechanisation of the clothing industry. (I'm not sure how accurate this
> critique is, by the way.)
> 
> Then, suddenly, the narrator throws in a note of doubt, questioning whether
> Dixon detected "an incompletely suppress'd Lilt of Insincerity" in Mason's
> voice. So, perhaps Cha. wasn't being totally straight with Jere., and
> perhaps Jere. had noticed (and perhaps Cha. had noticed that Jere. had
> noticed.)
> 
> Anyhow, quite unaccountably Mason starts insulting Dixon, sarcastically
> calling him "Optimism" and taunting him for his "boobyish Casuistry". Dixon
> is understandably non-plussed by this attack, and after a couple of
> double-takes, reverts to a sneering tone himself. No longer cautious about
> or respectfully sensitive to Mason's melancholy temperament he deliberately
> overturns their usual conversational roles, and dares Mason to finish the
> thread of his maudlin and paranoid fatalism with the snide command of "Amuse
> me."
> 
> Bedlamite.  a madman, a fool, an inmate of Bedlam.

Yes, this lover's quarrel has built the relationship and now threatens
to wreck it.  
It goes all the way back to the letters of chapter 2, the failures at
communication when they meet, the Seahorse, the drafting of the letter
to the RS, the letter from the RS, the discussion about how each needed
friends at or near the top to climb the Society ladder....so on...but as
you mentioned, jbor, the scene at  G&M Washington's, where the men quite
publicly traded barbs, set the straw on the camel's back. The straw has
to do with, among other things (including a reversal of the magnetism in
their love), labor. Mason is an Astronomer and Dixon a surveyor. Mason
didn't like it when he and his assistant were both called astronomers
while at the Cape. Now, in America, where even Slaves and Doxies seem 
more interested in land and less interested in the stars and Mason's
instruments, Mason's has turned cruel and envious. Back on the Hill, it
was Dixon who held the conversation about 45 and the Ohio Co. with
George and Gershom, while Mason (and I suspect that Mason did not
indulge as much as Dixon did at the Cape and so his self-absorbed
babbling about Astronomy and Longitude may in small part be attributed
to the Hemp) talks Astronomy with Mrs. W.  And Mrs. W doesn't even
weave. Although, if we want to consider the historical facts, the
Washingtons did employ quite a few weavers, carpenters too. 

Just scratching at the wall a bit here, but I gotta go, thanks RJ, good
stuff again, 

A bit of Ahab in Mason and bit of Carroll's Bellman too: 



          He had bought a large map representing the sea, 
           Without the least vestige of land:
           And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
           A map they could all understand. 

           "What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,
           Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"
           So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
           "They are merely conventional signs! 

           "Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
           But we've got our brave Captain to thank"
           (So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best--
           A perfect and absolute blank!" 

           This was charming, no doubt: but they shortly found out
           That the Captain they trusted so well
           Had only one notion for crossing the ocean
           And that was to tingle his bell. 

           He was thoughtful and grave--but the orders he gave
           Were enough to bewilder a crew.

T