AtD, p. 856-857 "pretend to be fascinated"

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut  wrote:

>
> Please tell me what this exchange means:
>   Y: "This needn't be---"
>   R: "It ain't"
>
how about this?

Yashmeen is doing a pro forma protestation of sexual innocence,
a sort of sophisticated-lady rustling of petticoats
(apparently not wearing the noiseless frock, eh?) and nodding at all
sorts of lady/gentleman polite protocols as to Victorian conventions
(knowing that
Reef knows she habitually flouts them)

-- while Reef is assuming a gruff proletarian brusqueness such as might be
calculated to appeal to the likes of Ruperta (as mentioned in her attraction to
the tunnel workmen) - and, thus, by extension, to the bluestocking that
Yashmeen is momentarily, fragmentarily, posing as?