Crickets, Wealth, and Giving

I am currently reading Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald. Three striking sentences that made me pause are:

• In the lulls of the phonograph a cricket held the scene together with a single note. 
• He delighted in her stretching out her hands to new octaves now that she found herself beautiful and rich.
• Nicole brought everything to his feet, gifts of sacrificial ambrosia, of worshiping myrtle. 

I am in love with the cricket, often we do not need an entire orchestra, but a single sustaining note to hold things together.

The "stretching out of her hands" is so Gatsby.  Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby relates how Nick sees Gatsby for the first time alone in his lawn. Nick views Gatsby as, "...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way...".   Nicole, like Gatsby is literally stretching out her hands in want, and desire.  (I pause to think what about what my hands stretch out and reach for...).

The last quote about the "sacrificial ambrosia" and "worshiping myrtle" makes me think of the ambrosia someone brings to Thanksgiving dinner. Really anything brought to a "pot luck" sort of affair, like an immigrant to our American melting pot, is sacrificed for the consumption of the whole dining party.