How does a writer convey direct characterization?

Marla tells robin that some other women who were up at night saw the special forces heading into iraq from kuwait. when he asks why the women were up she replies, "had to go you know women did that? " why does she ask him this?

What is the best way to combine these sentences?

When first i engaged in this work, i resolved to leave neither words nor things unexamined, and myself with a prospect of the hours which i should revel away in feasts of literature . . –preface to a dictionary of the english language, samuel johnson what is the connotation of the word revel in this passage?