He feels that by visiting her glass business, which must be a fundamental part of her life, they can relate better. Oscar says that he wants to sit somewhere and get "a glass of port wine for the lady" and then "they could talk about this glass business of hers" These two lines contradict one another, in the sense that you wouldn't associate a "lady" with a glass manufacturing business, especially in the time setting of the story, when most businesses were run by males. So even though Lucinda is rarely mentioned in the passage, we are still able to characterize her as an independent woman with ambitions. .
One of the main themes explored in the passage is the contrast between the artificial and natural world and this is conveyed by the lines: "It had never occurred to him that a process of manufacture could be beautiful. Had you an hour before, asked him what he would call beautiful he would have drawn on the natural world" Oscar then goes on to name examples out of the natural world "species along the lanes of Devon", the "anemone his father had drawn" and "Stratton's harvest stooks". These are all examples out of "the rock pools of memory". Oscar's background is portrayed by these rural images and he seemingly grew up on a farm, which could explain why he is so amazed by a manufacturing process. Another significant theme is religion, ".these fine soulless creatures which had, just the same, been made by God." .
In the passage Oscar is led to the glass factory, and his first impression of it is based on it's outer appearance "building with a rusting, corrugated roof" a place "littered with glittering shards", but when Oscar enters the factory, he finds beauty where he least expects it. "In these places you expected foulness, stink, refuse, and not, certainly not, wonder." The repetition of "not" emphasizes Oscar's immense surprise, that the place "contained something exceptional".
