Atdtda31: It did not take nearly as long, 881-883 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

And so back to the ball, where Reef's approach to Cyprian will replay his
earlier approach to Yashmeen. On 881, Cyprian's "eyes hypnotically fixed on
Reef's" recalls the earlier "light hypnosis" (863).

Here, the scene opens "[n]ear midnight" (881), ie the time when Carnesalve
begins, "an enthusiastic welcome to flesh in all its promise" (880), all of
which describes the way in which Reef is now drawn to Cyprian. In paragraph
two, once Cyprian's identity has been confirmed, seduction: "Reef's penis
... now continued to exhibit a mind of its own" (881). Given Cyprian's
appearance we should recall, from the earlier scene: "He grabbed a handful
of her hair, which he'd been wanting to do since he came in the room"
(858-859).

Reef's approach to Cyprian is quickly succeeded by the appearance of
Yashmeen: "They had never been all together quite like this till now" (881).
Having started with the long-shot of Cyprian, the section now shifts to
Cyprian's pov for what happens subsequently, Cyprian as "wicked little
fellatrice" and as "little go-between" (882), leading to the pay-off,
"feeling too absurdly grateful here" (883). The section ends with "Reef and
Yashmeen ... smiling too directly at one another", which takes us all the
way back to her "smiling, enormous eyes" on 858, where they begin, as they
end here, by not having (penetrative) sex. Cyprian gives the reader access
to the scene but has become "almost--though only almost--incidental" (883).
Hence the coyness--as so often with P's representations of sex--of the
hands-off: "But here let us reluctantly leave them ..." etc, the direct
address making the reader complicit.