ATDDTA (6): Well, except, 159-162

[Paul Nightingale]

Colfax attempts a kind of seduction of Kit by taking him to "the Vibe manor
on Long Island", what he calls "our cottage". The seduction will be aided by
"Cousin Dittany" (160). This takes place "one spring weekend" (159), but
"[t]hey [arrive] under a dourly overcast sky" (160). The mansion appears as
the set of a horror film, "a place best kept clear of", complete with
ghostly inhabitants: the return of the repressed. At breakfast, Kit says the
unsayable, leading to the exchange of glances, a domestic economy from which
he is excluded. Fortunately, Dittany's invitation to visit the stables
rescues the company from the need for explanation. However, her offer--and
the attendant need for Kit to answer her question--is interrupted by the
appearance of "Mrs Vibe, the former Edwarda Beef of Indianapolis", whose
lifestyle might be considered somewhat unconventional (although her
separation from SV, echoes that of both Troth Basnight and Erlys Rideout).
The narrative will now concentrate on Edwarda's back-story to the end of
this section: Kit has been sidelined, the proposed seduction--ostensibly the
reason for the narrative 'being there'--incomplete. One line of inquiry has
been opened by Kit's Bronte-esque allusion to an unspeakable presence, to be
closed by the opening of another (less shaming?) line: far from being
embarrassed by his wife, "Scarsdale actually began to look on her more as an
asset than any possible source of marital distress" (161).

The "Vibe offspring" have a reputation for "be[ing] crazy as bedbugs" (159);
yet this alleged insanity extends no further than the freedom to act
regardless of consequences, a freedom based on wealth. Scarsdale cites "the
old capitalist's curse", that "a head for business" cannot be inherited
(157). His sons specialise in spending money as an end in itself; and the
same might be said of both Edwarda--now Eddie--and Scarsdale's "younger
brother, R Wilshire" (161), who appears to write as Fleetwood explores, at
least until a change of fortune results from Eddie's involvement (161-162).
Scarsdale has, it seems, "grown adept at covering his financial tracks"
(161); his status is now respectable, secure, no longer nouveau riche.

Which takes us back to the "previous occupants" (160) who inhabit the
mansion's second floor. The mansion appears "much older than the known date
of construction", and therefore contributes to SV's fictional back-story.
Arguably, the "previous occupants" are those social forces that might
"[expose] his financial tracks".