Wallace defended one proposed scene cut in the margin with "Well, it introduces three characters, five themes and two settings."…

This one was stable by design: a change was proposed, but the material survived unchanged, which is itself evidence.

In the manuscript. a MS-1994/95 scene Pietsch proposed cutting; Wallace's margin reply is the surviving record.

In the published book. This material does not appear in the published book.

Evidence. A single source reports this.

Further notes. Class is provisional: Pietsch reproduces the reply as an emblem of the defence style, and whether the scene survived is not stated — stable-by-design rests on the anecdote's telling (a characteristic successful parry), not a verified retention. Registered as the one genuinely NEW margin-note item the Five Dials printing adds over Michael Pietsch's editing retrospective.