Caroline thinks that Auntie Braxton and the Captain should
marry because it is the practical thing to do. Auntie Braxton has been ill, and while
she was in the hospital, the Captain had stayed at her house, as he had no place to live
after his own house was ruined in a storm. Now that Auntie Braxton is getting out of the
hospital, she is going to need someone to take care of her, and the Captain needs a
place to stay. The Captain is fond of Trudy Braxton and is a skilled and gentle
caregiver, but if he stays with Trudy when she comes back home, people will talk about
them; in the staid, Puritan New England philosophy which is predominant in the area, it
is not considered proper for a man and a woman to live in the same house if they are not
married. Even though it is clear that the two would be living together as a matter of
practicality and convenience only, they would be opening themselves up to the censure of
the society. As Sara Louise says,
It's how it looks. People don't think it looks
right for people who aren't married to live together in the same
house."
To Caroline, the
solution is simple - the Captain and Auntie Braxton should just get married. As she so
logically reasons, Trudy Braxton
"needs someone to take care of her and her house,
and (the Captain) need(s) a house to live in. It would be a marriage of convenience"
(Chapter 13).
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