The phrase

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Looks like you may have unearthed some sort of editorial typo (unless Gaddis is prone to this style of repetition.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>

>
>For what it's worth, I found The Phrase ("against the day") 4 times in Gaddis' J.R. Three of the four seem to mean the idea of fortifying against some day of reckoning. The other one seems more of the fog blots out the day variety.
>
>Although the fourth time appear to be quoting the third? 

>[p. 245] A train passed from the opposite direction with an enveloping shock and was gone, the door up ahead banged half open, half closed to the sway of the car past billboards, unfinished apartments Now Renting, another vacant platform, diaper service trucks marshaled against the day to come. —Do you stay in? she asked finally, —in town I mean? for the weekend?
>
>[p. 476]—Can't be alone like a God damned lunchroom, sit down at the empty counter he comes in sits right down beside you, twenty empty God damned stools comes in sits on the stool right beside you… A train passed from the other direction with an enveloping shock and was gone, and the door up ahead banged half opened, half closed to the sway of the car past billboards, finished apartments Now Renting, diaper service trucks marshaled against the day to come. —Might start a diaper…