ATDTDA (12): Whatcher missin, Red, 348-351 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

To RW's party, and "[a] butler or two [bow] them in the door". Cf. the
entrance to Smokefoot's, "to either side of which stood two doormen
splendidly uniformed, living pillars before whose serene inertia one was
either intimidated into moving along or not" (346). RW's butlers are
evidently not intimidating; the girls don't feel out of place here as they
might have done shopping. They have invitations (?) that signify acceptance
in lieu of being easily recognised.

Left alone, Dally finds herself speaking to a "young man" who will remain
nameless (349). As we wait for something spoken, she thinks of the past,
then of the shopping expedition, "the juvenile rag Katie had all but forced
her into buying": a self-conscious moment that leads to her thinking of
"that near-supernatural moment" in the store when she thought she saw Erlys.
She sees his youth, "turned out almost too quietly, as if to advertise his
inexperience", which in turn reminds her of her own "inexperience": he is a
somewhat ghostly figure, who then disappears without warning. She has gone
from acceptance at the door to the possibility of rejection here, the result
of, as she sees it, her dress: she has effectively seen herself in the young
man. Following the sound of the music she then sees, "[u]p by the bandstand,
a good-looking older man in the usual magician's outfit ." (350); and is
then accosted by "one Chinchito, a jumped-up circus midget", whom she can
deal with quite competently. She knows of him by reputation, and recognises
him: he is named in the text whereas the young man must remain anonymous.
Chinchito is a referent who takes her out of the party, to a world she is
more comfortable in: the young man is also a referent, but one who reminds
her of her younger self "in towns passed through long ago" (349). When
meeting Katie she places her in Chillicothe, Ohio: "I've been through there
a couple of times" (337). Hence her past remains as baggage, the
past-in-the-present: cf. her first view of the Chicago cityscape, "the
conglomeration of architectural styles" that give away its history (336).
The young man and ChinChito are similarly juxtaposed: one apparently
sexually experienced, the other apparently not, one commenting on her dress
("Nice outfit", 350), the other inspiring Dally's imagination to an
uncomplimentary judgement ("juvenile rag").