Atdtda25: Bickering even when silent, 720-721

[Paul Nightingale]

An opening description listing objects, "[f]resh flowers ..." etc, natural
phenomena, "rain at the windows" and "a shaft of sunlight". And then a new
paragraph that begins with "Madame Eskimoff look[ing] pale and grim", adding
her to the list. Others follow, Lajos Halasz arranged in the bathtub etc. An
animated exchange featuring Lionel Swome and the Cohen is then succeeded by
the commentary provided by Ratty and A. N. Other. The previous section
concluded with a long exchange between Ratty and Yashmeen, although she
never has to be identified as the speaker once Cyprian has been silenced:
Ratty ("what I suppose we are most interested in knowing, Miss Halfcourt .",
719) gives her the opportunity to speak, to be interrogated or debriefed,
perhaps.

There is claustrophobia here, "bickering even when silent" (720): as
reminiscent of the Chums as Theign's speech, top of 707, on "observation
from overhead". The windows allow a long-shot of "the dismal slum of Angel's
Field" (720). When--in the company of Cyprian--we meet up with Yashmeen on
716 she is working for a living, her employment juxtaposed to the "huge
Socialist demonstrations" on 715. Here, "the dismal slum" is juxtaposed to
"silver coffee pots and cream jugs ..." etc (720). The list includes "a
darazsfeszek, a somewhat oversize Dobos torte, a Rigo Jancsi", all of which
reminds us of Cyprian's over-indulgence earlier (713, 715); indeed, on 713,
he was unable to speak for eating. Here, in 50.3 as in 50.2, Yashmeen's
speech is accompanied by Cyprian's silence.