Atdtda32: Kept crumpet, 900

[Paul Nightingale]

A brief section summarising Dally's relationship with Crouchmas. On 898-899
the detailed description of Dally's rise to celebrity ends with Crouchmas in
the background, "not exactly lurking, but obstinately staring ..." etc
(899). On 900 he remains silent, his gaze appearing, as before, to define
Dally ("Mostly he liked to watch her masturbating ..."); but it is her
commentary ("... so sweet, really" following "just a breeze") that is
allowed the final word; and perhaps Crouchmas here offers an alternative to
Arturo Naunt's "amateur religious pageant" on 898. On 899 his appearance,
perhaps unnoticed "behind some Himalayan rhododendron or swiftly melting ice
sculpture", is itself a silent commentary on the hedonism described. On 900,
however, Crouchmas has moved centre stage.

The description of "actually quite swell surroundings" follows the lengthy
passage on 898-899 detailing Dally's celebrity, where we see the
fetishisation of "items of her intimate apparel" (top of 899); as such, this
passage continues the account of her 'good' fortune. On 895: "Arturo wanted
repose, stillness--what Dally gave him was a dynamic athlete, surrendered to
a wind only she could feel ..." etc. On 900: "... the soiled opacity of his
daily business, its hundreds of small weaselly arrangements with go-betweens
who did not always remember which name they were supposed to be using,
transmuted to clarity and grace and herself in expensive dishabille and a
warm fog of self-pleasure. while he sat at his safe distance, watching".