Chet woke up later and found that someone, presumably a homeless man who had come in to steal a dinner, had turned his tuxedo pants pockets inside-out and stolen three hundred dollars out of his wallet.
He then became belligerent about his drinking and refused to let anyone talk him out of driving his date to her hotel. After he stumbled down the stairs on the way to get his car, with more good sense than Barbara thought the fraulein had, she deserted him and took a taxi.
It seemed like years had passed since the wedding, so much had happened in the following few months. Gail and Paul had honeymooned at a small ski lodge in Vail, Colorado, where he could be comfortable in bluejeans and cowboy boots. Barbara pictured them snuggling together under a single plaid woolen blanket around a roaring, crackling fire in their chalet room at night, not needing brandy to warm them after a day skiing in the mountains.
Oh, the hell with it!, Barbara decided, giving up on the Jimmy Stewart movie and going home before it was over.
Barbara's year had begun with having to leave college after just one semester. With it went her job at the sorority house, but she didn't mind that so much because after Gail's marriage, her friend no longer lived there.
After their honeymoon, the happy couple rented a coach house near Lake Michigan in Evanston, although Paul didn't want to be even that close to Gail's parents with only two suburbs between them. Both Gail's and Paul's mothers had been against the marriage, which seemed hasty to them, Paul's mother especially. Mrs. Riordan wanted her son to give more thought to his "drastic decision to give up the priesthood." He should study another four years, then before taking his final vows of celibacy, "make his choice: God or Gail."
Paul's four years in the seminary were the equivalent of a college bachelor's degree, and that helped him make his choice.
Soon as he did, he had felt at peace. That convinced him he had made the right decision. The subject never came up again at his home with Gail or when they visited his parents. Still, he knew it was always there, in his mother's heart, keeping her from loving Gail, her new and only daughter.
Gail dropped out of college after her marriage. She spent most of her time at Red Olafson's airport learning to fly a plane while Paul began working there full-time as a mail pilot and flying instructor. Barbara saw them often because she, too, found full-time work there.