Atdtda23: Ambassadors from far away, 662-664

[Paul Nightingale]

Yashmeen is inspired to tell a story belonging to her childhood, of
"podpol'niki, underground men" (663). As for the "secret rooms" designed to
hide them in: cf. Philippe's take on cathedrals on 658.

In the first instance, these men, "ambassadors from some mysterious country
very far away" (663), recall Mr Ace ("We are here among you as seekers of
refuge from our present-your future ..." etc) on 415. And Kit might be able
to identify, given the nature of his separation from Webb on 105: maths over
family. Their aimless wandering is invoked in the opening sentence: "...
allowing the mountain wind to do as it wished with her hair" (662). And then
her "graveside confession" (663), as though Riemann is there to hear her, as
though it even matters, might remind us of Reef and Webb after Jeshimon
(214-215); or Frank's visit to the miners' graveyard on 316, when Webb,
unlike Riemann, does have something to say for himself. Yashmeen excludes
Kit, eg the final exchange on 664: Kit indeed sees himself in quasi Jamesian
terms as some kind of 'innocent abroad'.