The newlyweds are a nameless couple.

We know them initially by their clothes: "the young man in the blue suit" and "the girl in beige" who "looked as new as a peeled egg. Her hat, her fur, her frock, her gloves were glossy and stiff with novelty." These descriptions confirm their innocence and naivete. Their nervousness about their honeymoon leads them to petty jealousies and arguments. One of the arguments concerns the wife's new hat which the husband fails to appreciate.

The hat cost twenty-two dollars; its expensive price tag (in 1931 dollars) suggests taste and class to the wife. Later, named characters appear in the story as the topic of discussion. The young wife accuses her husband first, of disliking her sister, Ellie, and then of finding one her bridesmaids, Louise, too attractive. The husband, in turn, is jealous of Joe Brooks, an old flame of his wife's...