ATDTDA (10): Runninmates, 270-272

[Paul Nightingale]

History appears in the Deuce-Lake marriage, and he "ha[s] to gently start
breaking it to [her] that there just might be some people after him". Lake,
for her part, "exhibit[s] strange patches of innocence" (271). Sloat is
absent at the outset, indeed for most of this section; just as Lake was
absent from the previous section. Dirty sex is fast becoming no more than a
memory; although there is no reason to suppose the writing here is loyal to
a strict chronology. The text has established the nature of their
relationship; there is no need to labour the point. There is some ambiguity
here. Lake "imagined it was money he owed ." etc; and Deuce "pretended to
explain". Is that an independent narrator telling us what Lake genuinely
thought; or is it simply indirect speech? Is this a front she has put on,
another of her "unsuspected talents for indirectness" (268)?

Sloat's return down the page on 271 is again context-free; and again Lake
has disappeared. Earlier, the narrative, on behalf of Lake, fast-forwarded
to a time when Sloat was "long gone" (268); now there is a similar moment
from Deuce's point of view (271-272). We're told that Deuce will be haunted
by "the darkest sorts of suspicions about his old runninmate" (271);
whereas, earlier, it was Sloat assuming "Deuce was being haunted by what he
did" (266). If Lake reminds Deuce of Webb (262), it is Sloat who ties him to
what actually happened. He doesn't simply question Sloat's loyalty here; he
imagines in some detail the scene in which Sloat tells all to the company
rep. Deuce replays, in his head, the scene he himself took part in,
replacing himself with a rather more eloquent Sloat. Repetitive, another
memory of a memory.