The Duchess and the Jeweller

Why does the story open by describing Oliver Bacon’s flat, particularly the furniture? What are readers meant to understand from it?

What benefit, or what compulsion, leads Oliver to repeatedly “dismantle himself” and go back in his mind to “being a little boy in a dark alley” (248)?

What is the promise Oliver makes to his mother? What is the “bet” that he has made and claims to have won? What evidence is there in the text to support your claim?