From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) peacock murderer clues and two random bits.
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 02:11:42 -0600

Adam Stephanides wrote:
>The passage actually reads:
>
>  Aunt Olivia, having untied the blue thread that had held it shut in the
>basket, peered into a small milk-glass with a lid shaped like a setting
hen.
>"Ah, olives," she said.  "Ripe olives.  I'd forgotten what I put in there.
>Den may realize that, Robert, but it won't mean anything to him.  Not yet."
>(p. 57, Harper hc)
>
>So the blue thread (not ribbon) is untied, not tied; and there's nothing
>about Weer remembering it "when it is important."  And in any case, by "it
>won't mean anything to him.  Not yet," she seems to be referring to her
>forgetting about the olives (which doesn't mean anything to me either), not
>to the blue thread.  Later she leaves the empty dish in the cave (59), but
>there's nothing about her wrapping it first, in blue ribbon or otherwise.

She's referring, I believe, to Peacock's question in the preceding
paragraph. Answering his question, actually, which was: "Do you think Alden
here realizes that this is the oldest house he has ever been in? Probably
the oldest house he will ever be in, even if he lives to be a hundred."

-Roy


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