ATDTDA (20): Fatherly pride, 573-574

[Paul Nightingale]

Erlys' opening speech announces Dally's absence, and her dialogue with Luca
recaps what has already been said and done: a rehearsal to demonstrate that
this is "[s]omething [she] can never go back and change". If anything, they
"[feel] thirty years older" (574). The rest of the conversation constructs a
version of Dally that is markedly different from the innocent babe they had
described earlier: "... if she [can]handle New York before she even met us,
she can do Venezia in her sleep". This argument removes Merle from the
equation; and Luca goes on to confirm himself as caring patriarch, indeed
confirms that this scene is about him rather than Dally.

Cf. Dally's parting from Merle and the "strenuous objection[s]" offered by
"those accomplished in the parental arts" (317). And then Dally's own
judgement: "If I can get through the average Saturday night in Telluride,
there's nothing back east'll present much of a problem."