Why this glance? Obviously, Mrs Gould already knows something of Decoud's love for Antonia. The surface meaning, which Decoud answers, seems to be Mrs Gould's worry that he chose a lower-class occupation without consulting her. But the reader's palpable first impression is the opposite: one feels that Mrs Gould is aware that Antonia talked him into it, that she has snared him into the web of Costaguana idealisms.