ATDDTA (6): Eyes sparkling, 162-163

[Paul Nightingale]

This brief section sees the seduction of Kit completed; and then the
mysterious music intrigues him, leading him to identify Fleetwood. The final
sentence notes that FV is not just a "black sheep" but "widely discussed"
(163), which might remind us of the matter that cannot be discussed or
mentioned at all: the way Kit glimpse's FV at a distance recalls the earlier
vision.

Kit is a somewhat solitary figure in this section; he "wander[s] down to the
stables, where he [is] presently joined by Dittany" (162), and then, later,
"wander[s] through the house" (163), having failed to speak to Colfax ("as
if the others had conspired to prevent it"). He is still an outsider.

Dittany appears in the stables, "her eyes sparkling from beneath the brim of
an all-but-irresistible hat" (162). Cf: "He ... had on smoked 'specs' and a
straw hat whose brim width unavoidably suggested disguise" (156). When Kit
first meets SV he cannot make eye-contact, although he subsequently notes
(the text adopting his pov) that SV "had been looking at him strangely. Not
a fatherly or even foster-fatherly expression. No, it was--Kit almost
blushed at the thought--it was desire" (158). This of course is after he
"found himself steady on his feet and able to gaze back calmly into
Scarsdale's increasingly perplexed stare" (157).

Kit's resistance here ("What I was afraid of, sir") establishes the
behaviour that will lead to the seduction planned by Colfax and executed by
Dittany. Given that the writing depends on a silent economy of eye-contact,
one might also recall the exchanged glances that greet Kit's reference to
his nocturnal visitor (160). Kit's status is defined by the gaze, eg:
Dittany "gazing back over her shoulder with what you'd have to call a
mischievous expectancy" (162). And one should note that "another breathless
ten minutes" (163) is facilitated by the way Kit is, by implication, ignored
"during an afternoon croquet party". If he is still an outsider here,
seduction is inseparable from exclusion.

The action in the final paragraph is initiated by sound, what Kit hears as
"[h]e followed the sound" and "moved through a darkening amber light".
Eventually: "He look[s] around for wall switches but [can] see none." And
then, he cannot be sure he has indeed seen a "dark figure receding into the
invisible". There was no uncertainty earlier when Scarsdale asked if he were
"sure" he'd seen someone in his room (160).