Mrs. Tanner feels conflicted thoughts about the recent marriage of her son. James is her only son and she is a single parent. Though Mrs. Tanner feels great pride in her son's marriage, she is also upset that he won't be around her as often. Mrs. Tanner tells this to her friends while also keeping her upset feelings internalized. Mrs. Tanner thinks of hobbies she can pick up to distract her, such as sewing, to earn money. Her friends listen to her stories and reassure Mrs. Tanner that it will be ok because James is marrying a financially comfortable girl by the name of Mary Townsend. Mrs. Tanner explains that she understand the situation and refuses to ask James for help because of this. At first, Mrs. Tanner was afraid that James and Mary were going to take her money, but she soon realized that Mary is a kind girl and her family already has money. Mrs. Tanner thinks about how James is rarely there when she converses these thoughts to her friends because he has a job at a place called the Works or was with his wife. Mrs. Tanner recalls that James only seemed to be present for these conversations when it's close friends, like their neighbor, Miss Emily Schroeder. However, when James' wedding day got closer, he was more absent from the conversations. Mrs. Tanner then talks about her husband who ran away from their family and how she had to work tedious hours to maintain their family. Miss Schroeder adds in that James was always ungrateful for the work his mother put in. Miss Schroeder talks about how spoiled James was and how similarly he was to his father. Miss Schroeder further talks about how she considered warning Mary about James' behavior, but never did after her friends warned her not to. Mrs. Tanner thinks about how Mary used to visit her everyday, but has also stopped coming. Yet, Mrs. Tanner refuses to talk about this in public and still finds joy in talking to Mary when she can. Mrs. Schroeder also thinks about how worried she was for Mrs. Tanner, who seemed very sickly because of all her cleaning. The two women sit together and wait for the car to come pick them up for the wedding. Mrs. Schroeder talks about how Mrs. Tanner became worried when James did not come pick her up, so the two walk together to the Townsends' home. When they arrive, James explains that he drove the car around town to look for them, not knowing they had walked there. He then carries his sickly mother inside and calls the doctor. When the doctor explained that Mrs. Tanner would not survive because she had a stroke, Mrs. Schroeder finds some happiness in James' response to postpone the wedding.