Atdtda32: Clive's little reader, 900-903 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

And what has Lew been doing since we last saw him? On 614 he leaves Replevin
and his own role as Gus Swallowfield (a scene in which Arturo Naunt is
introduced, if only by reputation), "withdr[awing] again out into the empty
suburban lamplight, the stridently unpopulated evening". We next see him on
678, in the company of Neville and Nigel. They are on the crowded Strand,
where "streetlighting carrie[s] ... the luminous equivalent of a steady,
afflicted shriek". On 679, in the theatre, he "begins scanning the crowd" to
find both Renfrew and Khautsch. On 683 he is off to report to the Cohen. The
chapter ends on 693 with Chunxton Crescent deserted and Lew concluding that
"what it really [feels] like [is] a release from a bad contract". Musing, he
speculates about what he would say to the Cohen or the two Ns: "Sorry boys
..." etc, the end of Part 3, Bilocations. And so to his reappearance on 900,
"more like a consultant on retainer", distanced somewhat from his former
'colleagues': "these days there [are] T.W.I.T. everywhere", but Lew remains
the outsider. Cf his lonely beat as a White City operative in 15.2: "As the
evening crept across the valley ..." etc (174).

Here, his meeting with Dally takes place under moonlight, and Lew has been
alone all day, "lying beneath the Sun, hat down over his eyes ..." etc
(901). Perhaps he has been waiting for her to share his isolation amid
"these privileged at play": natural moonlight is juxtaposed here to the
artificial lamplight that facilitates the entertainment, the latter perhaps
no match for "the Dog Star Sirius, which ruled this part of the summer, and
whose blessings, tradition held, were far from unmixed". Finally, as Lew
"[writes] a number on a business card and hand[s] it to her" (903), the
narrative records his awareness of "eyes ... directed their way": they have
been brought into the "weekend party" (900) that has, thus far continued in
the background. They might be T.W.I.T. eyes or the casual gaze of those
"admiring [Dally's] toilette or only trying to read it" (900).