M & D "Group" Read. "Whaddya mean 'We', kemosabe?"

[Mark Kohut]

p. 347...The Ghastly Fop. "the shockingly underaged Protasia White has not
yet succumb'd,"

Why is she underaged? The horror? Richardson's Clarissa cum Lolita motif?

This ghastly strain in the
history of the telling of America?

.."before the wicked Chymickal Assaults of the Ghastly F."........alchemy
of "love"...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chymical_Wedding_of_Christian_Rosenkreutz

An internal (to the novel) statement of the move from History to Romance
storytelling?
Such a move in English?American literary history?