Hal horizontal in V.R.5 (pp. 899–900)

John Wayne overdoses on a decongestant, embarrasses himself on the radio, and is taken to St. Elizabeth's overnight — and it is Avril who sits by his bed until late, which Mario reads as "estimable and just like the Moms." The queen's attachment to the surrogate son, hidden in plain sight and laundered through Mario's uncomprehending admiration. Wayne is the family's imported heir — the Québecois prodigy the Moms is drawn to, another young man in the son-position — and the maternal vigil at the hospital reads, to the loyal younger son, as nothing but the mother's goodness. The scene keeps the whole Gertrude-liaison apparatus at the level of appearances, where it registers only as care.