What do you make of Billy and Trompette's relationship?

Billy says of Trompette: "She saved my life and so we are bound together for eternity. I cannot leave her because I owe her too much; she cannot leave me because she has taken to herself the responsibility for my well-being." What do you make of their relationship? How does the idea of holding responsibility for someone else's life run throughout this novel, beyond Billy and Trompette?

Billy and Trompette seem like a curiosity only and their relationship is not well developed because of their smaller roles in the book. I think the responsibility driven nature of their relationship was much more common in past centuries. Unfortunately from my modern perspective it does not seem like a healthy balanced relationship in which both parties thrive.

I really don’t understand why Trompette stays with Billy. She seems to feel some sort of obligation to him, although I’m not sure why. She doesn’t seem to be getting anything out of the relationship.

I believe that their relationship was a relationship of chance. It began when they were both needy and alone and rocked along from there. It was convenient and met their needs for the moment. Neither was committed, regardless of Billy's comment about eternity. He did not act responsibly toward Trompette but who else would sit idly by and watch him do the things he did. They were apparently rather than actually comfortable in their pseudo relationship.