Atdtda22: Toadying for breakfast, 605-609

[Paul Nightingale]

Lew is the reader's representative in scenes featuring Vance Aychrome and
the Grand Cohen; in each he does little but receive information, from
Aychrome regarding "[t]he subject Replevin" (606), and from the Cohen
regarding his/the Cohen's new role ("... coz me term's almost up", 608).

Initially, Aychrome's consumption of breakfast is in contrast to Lew's
frustration ("Ordinarily I'd be full of my breakfast ..." etc); and he
complains that Lew is one of the "unauthorized dilletantes all pottering
about and queering the pitch". One recalls Lew's apparent recognition of the
Bomber on 241, a moment that might be said to establish him in England.
Currently, he is very much an outsider, unable to compete with Aychrome for
food; yearning also for a decent cup of coffee ("a fool's errand," 605; this
scene, then, recalls his failure to find Cyclomite in England, eg 233). For
Aychrome, consumption = power; yet his authority is brittle, it seems. He
too is an outsider, a Scotsman working in London; and his 'intellectual'
credentials ("a zealous disciple of the criminological theories of Dr.
Cesare Lombroso", 606) are middlebrow, as confirmed by the subsequent swipes
at "modern poetry" and "precious Chinese rubbish", neither of which he
understands (607). He acknowledges how easily he might be discredited,
suffering a loss of status: "... next thing I'm down in Seven Dials on the
graveyard watch poking me torch into dustbins." The (lower-) middle-class
fear of proletarianisation. For Aychrome, Replevin is associated with the
mysteries of the art world, "whatever those may be when they're at home"
(606); such cultural insecurity is normalised by the "constant stream of
suspect characters" that categorise him as a terrorist/security threat. Of
course, just as Aychrome caricatures Replevin, so does Lew caricature
Aychrome here: he is seen through Lew's eyes.

Lew has been summonsed to distract him from the Bomber. Replevin is
suspected by Aychrome of criminal activities ("International Mischief
written all over his map", 606); however, others disagree ("we're frankly of
mixed opinion at the Yard ..." etc, 607). Lew's outsider status gives him "a
freedom from legal restraint" that Aychrome is happy to exploit, perhaps a
vicarious pleasure.

We leave Aychrome on his way to Scotland Yard to begin his day's work; the
Cohen, by way of contrast, is found by Lew in his office, "in official
regalia" (608). Like Aychrome, the Cohen is sensitive to status-change, "a
truly blessed release", he insists, from "thankless grovelling": somewhat
different to the Seven Dials fate that Aychrome fears (607), yet perhaps
echoing Aychrome's  sense of collegial tensions. He claims superior
knowledge, "aspects of this the Met cannot appreciate" (609) and sends Lew
off to mix with "[t]he first pale husbands of the evening". The section has
therefore covered a single working day.