How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
In a few seconds Dixon had noticed all he needed to notice about this girl: the combination of fair hair, straight and cut short, with brown eyes and no lipstick, the strict set of the mouth and the square shoulders, the large breasts and narrow waist, the premeditated simplicity of the wine-coloured corduroy skirt and the unornamented white linen blouse. (4.13)
Really? Looks are "all he needed to notice" about Christine? Maybe this sentence tells us everything that's worth noticing about Jim, rather than Christine.
Quote #5
"Pity she's so refained, though." Margaret hesitated, then decided to gloss the epithet. "I don't like women of that age who try to act the gracious lady. Bit of a prig, too." (4.62)
Here, Margaret's criticizing Christine after she sees how Jim's looking at her. Kind of a stereotyped "catty" thing to say about a rival for your boyfriend's affections.
Quote #6
Dixon felt sad: he realized for the first time that it was really unlikely that [Christine] would come to the Ball, a good deal more unlikely than she had any reason to think, and that it was correspondingly unlikely that he'd ever see her again. It was nasty to think that the deciding factors would be the strength and nature of Bertrand's ambitions, sexual and financial-social. (9.62)
Poor Christine. She's at the mercy of Bertrand's idea of whether it would be more advantageous for him to take her or Carol to the Summer Ball. We'll give Amis some credit here for recognizing that the power that a man could have over the women in his life could be pretty unfair.