"Heirs of the Living Body" Summary

Del goes to stay with her aunts Elspeth and Grace in Jenkin's Bend for the summer. Del's aunts introduce her to the husband of the daughter of a nearby family, a visit for which Elspeth and Grace have done a great deal preparing. They have polished the silver, baked and gotten out their best tableware. The man's table manner is atrocious, and the aunts make fun of him after he leaves. As Del points out, "pretensions are everywhere" around that house. It is a very different place than either Benny's house or her parents' house. It is a world of double entendre, unkind jabs disguised as jokes and "intricate formality."

The aunts believe that ambition is something to be avoided, since it sets a person up for failure and to make one look...