When Ray came upstairs that night, a half hour after closing time, Sally sensed immediately that something was wrong. It was in the defeated slump of his shoulders and the bleak gloominess of his face. But she said nothing, waiting for him to tell her about it. She had fixed him a good dinner for the hot weather … cold sliced ham, snap beans, macaroni salad and cornbread. Sally was proud that she was learning to cook in the southern way.

But her husband only picked at the tempting food she loaded on his plate, and halfway through the tense meal he suddenly laid his fork down and announced to her, «Blodgett's selling the drugstore – to a discount chain.»

«W-what?» Sally stammered, her heart plummeting. «But he can't do that, Ray! Where did you hear it?»

When he told her she kept on shaking her head in disbelief, «I just can't understand how he could do such a thing.» She pushed her chair back abruptly and came around to her husband's side, taking him in her arms and holding him protectively against her warm body as if she were comforting a child, «Don't you care, Ray!» she said fiercely. «Don't you worry about it for one minute. Oooh, I never trusted him – that smooth-talking old hypocrite!»

She meant to soften the blow, to bolster his crushed feelings. Unfortunately, her action and choice of words only brought home to Ray more strongly his feeling of failure. The husband should be the one to comfort the wife and shield her from life's harsh realities – not the other way around. And then to rub salt in his wounds she had to say that she had seen through John Blodgett all the time whereas he had been taken in by the glowing promises.

In fact, Sally's thoughts were racing rapidly into the future … her only sorrow was for Ray. Why, it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, after all. They had money in the bank … now they could leave Quiggville and make a whole new start somewhere else … somewhere more lively and stimulating. But one glimpse at the desperately unhappy face of her husband sent these hopeful thoughts crashing into limbo. Ray had to make it here, he had to prove himself in exactly the way that he had set out to do.