Not very well, he feared.

Might not this prove to be the happiest period of all her new life, he asked himself.

As yet the wonder and the glory of the new estate left room in her imagination for little else; the mold was broken, but the child was not conscious of its bottle shape.

Nevertheless the shape was there.

When that child learned the truth, when it heard the laughter and felt the ridicule, what then?
He could not bring himself to envy Allegheny Briskow.
"First off, Ma and me are goin' over to Dallas to do some tradin'," the girl was saying.