ATDTDA (18): No Euclid Avenue mansion, 506-510

[Paul Nightingale]

The new section begins with Dally's first named appearance. Her presence was
evident on 505; the relationship with Katie was enough to name her. Here,
Katie has disappeared, to be replaced by Erlys, having first appeared when
Dally arrived in New York to look for her mother, Katie's accent betraying
her 'place' in Dally's past (337). An echo of that moment is provided by the
observation that Erlys "sound[s] just like him" (505), at which point Dally
disappears again, re-emerging in flashback in the form of Erlys' "neatly
gravid waistline" (507). The flashback refers to Erlys' exclusion from
whatever society is represented by "the Snidells of Prospect Avenue", Merle
the itinerant odd-job man representing a more modest social status. On 508
Erlys says she couldn't come back for Dally because "Merle didn't wait, just
took off with you, no word of where to"; his lack of an address means she
cannot undo her own departure.

The mother-daughter discussion is interrupted by arrangements for dinner in
first class; the status enjoyed by the Zombinis is then emphasised by the
closing description of a first-class dinner.

By the end of the section Dally's thoughts have fixed on "the young man who
keeps looking at [her] in the dining salon" (510); such thoughts take her
back to RW's party and the "juvenile rag Katie had all but forced her into
buying" (349). On 508 she says Erlys and Luca "went wild the minute you laid
eyes on each other"; and Erlys confirms that this is still the case (509).
However, when Erlys mentions the young man Dally maintains distance by
raising the possibility that he's "gogglin at" Bria (510). Erlys has shared
her own backstory, or at least some of it; but Dally keeps to herself this
recollection of a moment that precedes her meeting with her mother.