Worst of all, Lew's adored young wife, Troth, when she found his breezy note, headed straight for the interurban and up to Chicago, intending to plead with him to come back, though by the time she got off at Union Station, reflection to the pulse of the rails had done its work.
* * * * * * * * * *
When did we slip from "Boy's Adventure Novel" to "Allegorical Morality Play"? Lew's wife's name is Troth! So even the very embodiment of faith and loyalty has chosen to abandon him for his unknown sin! And could it be that the "unknown sin" is simply an allegory for an unrepentant sinner? Perhaps Lew is feigning ignorance, or is in deep denial, over the actions he's committed which have sewn such disapproval. Although the advice from the Orientalist about Lew being the hallucination works too well if this is a moral allegory where Lew actually is the unrepented sin.
Here, we see Lew literally lose faith. He has lost his job, his reputation, his wife, and his hat. Oh, and he's lost the truth—again, literally—since "troth" is also just the archaic form of "truth." Double Oh! He's also lost love as well! I mean because he just lost Troth's love and trust and not because he earlier lost Wensleydale's love and trust.
"reflection to the pulse of the rails had done its work"
It's as if Troth has been hypnotized. That's exactly the kind of plot device an 18th or 19th century novel would have been based on! Pynchon previously mentions mesmerism with Zombini the Mysterious, the man Merle Rideout's wife left him for. Does that mean we should see Merle and Lew as reflections of each other, both having lost their wives to a hypnotic lure? I'm sure it's all part of some grand theme in the book that I'm not currently privy to because I've only read thirty-seven pages so far. But I'm sure it's something about the kinds of losses man has suffered due to new technologies. Or Lew Basnight is simply the allegorical morality play of Merle's life, a shadow reflection to help cement the theme in the reader's mind.
