Raunce and His Housemaids

"They were wheeling wheeling in each other's arms heedless at the far end where they had drawn up one of the white blinds. Above from a rather low ceiling five great chandeliers swept one after the other almost to the waxed parquet floor reflecting in their hundred thousand drops the single sparkle of distant day again and a again red velvet panelled walls, and two girls, minute in purple, dancing multiplied to eternity in these trembling pears of glass."(65).

It was brought up in class today that it was ambiguous as to who Raunce preferred of Edith and Kate towards the beginning of the novel. I remember reading this passage and it stuck out to me in terms of this ambiguity, as it illustrates Raunce watching the girls without any particular one in mind. Raunce watches them closely as implied by the great detail in which the dancing girls are described. The names of the girls aren't mentioned, but from previous episodes earlier in the text, it is easy to infer that the "two girls, minute in purple" are Kate and Edith. However, it is important to note that neither name is mentioned--instead, they are simply an identity-less number. Not only are they "two girls," they are "multiplied to eternity" through the glass from the chandeliers, providing even more options than there were to begin with. This serves as a metaphor, for amongst an endless amount of dancing girls clad in purple, which one will Raunce choose?