Hal vs. Stice; Steeply watching
the punter’s cathected profiler, who allegedly came to see Hal only about Orin but whom Charles Tavis won’t let see Hal yet, even chaperoned, Tavis’s reasons for the reticence too detailed for Helen Steeply to understand, probably
Context
The family closing ranks around its youngest, administered by the uncle. The Moment reporter is officially at E.T.A. to soften Orin's profile, "allegedly came to see Hal only about Orin" — and yet Tavis won't permit her near Hal at all, not even chaperoned, for reasons the narration flags as suspiciously over-detailed. It's the succession-machinery in its gatekeeping mode: the administrator-uncle managing the family's exposure to outside scrutiny, deciding which member of the founder's line the press may approach and which is sealed off. deLint is under "explicit and emphatic" orders to keep the journalist in sight at all times; the whole apparatus of the school bends to keep an outside eye off the son directly related to Himself. The Incandenza family as an object of investigation, and Tavis as the wall around it.