Two other essentials of Spark’s narrative method, ironic juxtaposition of chapter sections and the misleading or deception of the reader, are also interconnected with her theme of truth versus distortion. A blend of narrative looping and ironic juxtaposition occurs early in chapter 1 with the depiction of Trevor Lomas’ attempted banishing and battering of Humphrey at a pub (after the wedding fiasco) and the flashback revelation that Lomas was Humphrey’s best man at the affair; this revelation parallels the later one that underneath Lomas’ solid citizenry is a villainous minor criminal. Other juxtapositions include the fourth chapter’s elder and younger illicit couples (Druce-Coverdale, Place-Morse) to show lovelessness bred by amorality and the seventh chapter’s scene of Leslie at a meeting of the Lomas gang, followed by his mother’s foolish declaration to her husband that Leslie is doing fine without scrupulous parental supervision. Finally, examples of Spark’s narrative misleadings include, in chapter 3, the expectation and apparent view of aggressive blue-collar males fighting, when the reality turns out to be that the altercation is between the women, with the men laboring to preserve peace, and, in chapter 7, the reader’s supposition that Nelly Mahone, under the Lomas gang’s duress, has concocted a farfetched lie about Dougal pursuing Lomas’ girl, Beauty, when only two sections later Dougal actually begins to court her.