ATDTDA (9): Let me kiss it, make it better, 262-264

[Paul Nightingale]

Deuce has recognised Lake; or rather her father in her. This is what
inspires his "knowing look", and also his self-serving view that women
"secretly love a killer". However, she doesn't know who he is; so his belief
here is speculative, ie she would if she knew. For Lake, "his face . had
slowly emerged into clarity". Again, cf. Lew and the photo, as well as
Renfrew's appearance (both 240), or "the luminous blur of the sfumato"
(253), or even ". they became aware that morning of something else about to
emerge from the sfumato" (256). Hence, looking at Lake, Deuce sees her
father as a ghostly presence; and he perhaps recalls that Webb wanted to
introduce them (196).

As this section proceeds, their relationship already is, Deuce contemplating
"the pure badness of everything he did when he wasn't with her" (262). On
the Billy-the-Kid exchange: one might think he is suggesting, in the manner
of a latter-day rock star, that he will burn out and die young. Lake,
however, sees the look. Cf. the "snake's eyes lit up so bright in the shadow
of his hatbrim" that signify "a really dedicated badman" (195). Or further
back: "Reef didn't say much, but his eyes got a squint into them that when
you saw it, you learned to take care." (90)

Oleander Prudge tells Lake what, apparently, everyone else (other than her
mother) already knows: "No secrets in this town ." (263). Her response is to
distance herself from her father. At the same time she extends the logic of
Reef's decision to keep sister and mother (here, "poor geese", 264) out of
the loop: if she cannot be party to vengeance, then Deuce doesn't-and
can't-exist for her as her father's killer. Reef told her to "do the
mourning"; he wanted to "keep [her] and Kit clear of it" (216).
Consequently, one might pause before blaming her, as Oleander does, for
pursuing Deuce as Webb's killer: "How I feel about Mister Kindred . and how
I felt about Webb Traverse are two different things."  (264)

In Venice, the Chums were told that the Sfinciuno Itinerary contains
"landmarks but also anti-landmarks-for every beacon, an episode of
intentional blindness" (248). The Professor distinguishes between "an object
of political struggle among the Powers of the Earth" and "a timeless faith
by whose terms all such earthly struggle is illusion" (249). One might
speculate that, for Lake, Deuce is a kind of anti-landmark. Oleander assumes
that, once informed of his identity, Lake will have different feelings; she
will accept the confines of a patriarchal order still insisting she is her
father's daughter.

Again, as with Lake previously (her scenes with Mayva, 192 and 217), there
is a moment that fast-forwards to a point in the future: "Thinking back it
would seem to Lake ." etc (264). Hence, what we read here is coincident with
her recollection. In each case (192, 217, 264) Lake recollects a moment that
underscored her exclusion: her estrangement from Webb (192), her distance
from Mayva/the family as a whole (217) and now her ignorance of what
"everybody had been in on" (264).