Day 2

Miss Goering is so paranoid about taking a taxi-cab (and getting into a car with a male stranger) that she’d rather go home with Arnold, also a male stranger. When I first read the novel, this logic made perfect sense to my 20 year old self.

Returning to Arnold’s flat, where he lives with his parents, Miss Goering is drawn to his father’s apparent toughness, his harsh words about Arnold and his mother. But as often happens, the bully is easily cowed: Arnold’s mother proves toughest of all.

Prompted by her “little idea of salvation” (p.29), rich Miss Goering sells her house, appalling Miss Gamelon. Arnold “mustn’t align myself too much…[with] Miss Gamelon,”(p.35) or Miss Goering will despise him; so he tells her what she wants to hear.