The landlady in the poem is fundamental in this context. The speaker suggests that he is wealthy and comes from a good background. She is polite by default, but the man can still sense her tension to remain civil, when a deeper, stronger desire resonates within her. Desire temporarily escapes like vapor, when its “light impersonality” (22) changes to “hard on the mouthpiece” (25). The poem, albeit ironically, continually describes the landlady in glowing terms. It is his final action (denying the rent) and his crude questions that reveal his shallow, racist self. The West African man thinks she is thoughtful enough to vary her tonal emphasis to keep it civil, but her civility weakens under the weight of his racism. As a reader, you get the impression that he has a sense of decorum. If she were dealing with a white person she would be polite, but she is talking to an African. Thought itself leads to the “silent transmission of pressurized good manners”