I think that's part of what fascinates me: he DOES seem slow on the uptake, but that implies that there's something to be on the lookout for, that too much hand-squeezing and too many private audiences is able to mean something, and yet this is literally the only time in the entire 69-chapter (nice) book that this possibility is raised. The rest of the time, Rory squeezes hands with impunity, and he and Hugh weep with how much they love each other, etc, etc. I think I'd gotten in the habit of writing off that kind of closeness as "homosociality prior to the threat of homosexuality," that these expressions of physical and emotional closeness are able to exist in part because there's nothing else they can mean. But that's not true!!

It also seems interesting to me, on reflection, that Rory doesn't encounter any gay sex in France, OR in the navy, renowned hotbed of gay sex (and he spends a long time complaining about the many failings of the navy!!) -- we see that gay sex exists only here, in its most benign form, and accompanied with a slightly ridiculous but also roughly compelling defense of the practice. Earl Strutwell is one of the story's many, many petty villains, but he doesn't make the top 25 in terms of harm done or animosity earned. If apparently Smollett KNOWS about gay sex, as a thing that a person should be on the lookout for, he could have presented it in a MUCH worse light with trivial ease! And yet he didn't!!