> > With his hands still in his coat pockets he stalked by me into the hall,
> > turned sharply as if he were on a wire, and disappeared into the living-
> > room. It wasn't a bit funny. Aware of the loud beating of my own heart I
> > pulled the door to against the increasing rain.
> > ----- The end of the citation -----

> What a strange sentence Fitzgerald is using!  At first, I thought this was a
> printing error.  But lo and behold, it is exactly the same in physical print.
> The sentence would sound better to me without the "to" in front of "against"
> and still render the meaning well enough.

In this part of the US, the word "to" in a context such as this would mean
the same as "closed" or "shut."  If I were to say I was closing the door
"against" the rain, I would personally be indicating that it was a
wind-driven rain.

That would, for me, be a similar usage to Bob Segar's usage of "against" in
the song "Against the Wind."  :)

Mike


 * SLMR 2.1a * Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my disk?!
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux