because the occasion of the dialogue and all the differences between Mrs.
Croft and himself position Lahiri’s rhetorical readers to be extremely sym-
pathetic. Lahiri calls attention to how far apart Mrs. Croft and the character
narrator are at this early point in their relationship, even as he registers the
similarity between her command and those other situations in which he has
submitted to another’s authority. Finally, Lahiri uses the comparison with the
character narrator’s marriage vows to provide a link between his distance from
Mrs. Croft and his distance from Mala.
Once the character narrator rents the room, the Splendid Ritual becomes
a daily occurrence. At the end of his first week, however, something changes:
When I approached the bench she peered up at me and demanded:
“What is your business?”
“The rent, madame.”
“On the ledge above the piano keys!”
“I have it here.” I extended the envelope toward her, but her fingers,
folded together in her lap, did not budge. I bowed slightly and lowered
the envelope, so that it hovered just above her hands. After a moment she
accepted, and nodded her head.
That night when I came home, she did not slap the bench, but out of
habit I sat beside her as usual. She asked me if I had checked the lock, but
she mentioned nothing about the flag on the moon. Instead she said:
“It was very kind of you!”
“I beg your pardon, madame?”
“Very kind of you!”
She was still holding the envelope in her hands. (184)The restricted narration thins the filter of the narrating-I, putting the
emphasis of the scene on the character-character interaction itself. Lahiri then
uses the synergy between the restricted narration and the dialogue, including
the authorial disclosure across this conversation and the first one, to guide
her audience’s interpretations and evaluations of that interaction. Early in the
scene, Mrs. Croft is again demanding and commanding, but this time the
character narrator does not acquiesce. Instead he does what he thinks is right,
countering her command (“On the ledge . . . !”) with his assertion (“I have
it here”) and following through by making it easy for her to take the money.
When she does, Lahiri guides her audience to infer that his ethically admira-
ble action leads to a shift in their power dynamic. Later in the passage, Lahiri
highlights one consequence of that shift. First, she briefly departs from the
RELIABILITY, DIALOgUE, AND CROSSOVER EFFECTS • 223