Why does Carol change her mind about how she will feel about Kennicott’s friends?

She followed Kennicott and the bobbing ends of the two bags which he carried. They were held back by the slow line of disembarking passengers. She reminded herself that she was actually at the dramatic moment of the bride’s home-coming. She ought to feel exalted. She felt nothing at all except irritation at their slow progress toward the door.

Kennicott stooped to peer through the windows. He shyly exulted:

“Look! Look! There’s a bunch come down to welcome us! Sam Clark and the missus and Dave Dyer and Jack Elder, and, yes sir, Harry Haydock and Juanita, and a whole crowd! I guess they see us now. Yuh, yuh sure, they see us! See ’em waving!”

She obediently bent her head to look out at them. She had hold of herself. She was ready to love them. But she was embarrassed by the heartiness of the cheering group. From the vestibule she waved to them, but she clung a second to the sleeve of the brakeman who helped her down before she had the courage to dive into the cataract of hand-shaking people, people whom she could not tell apart. She had the impression that all the men had coarse voices, large damp hands, tooth-brush mustaches, bald spots, and Masonic watch-charms.

She knew that they were welcoming her. Their hands, their smiles, their shouts, their affectionate eyes overcame her. She stammered, “Thank you, oh, thank you!”

One of the men was clamoring at Kennicott, “I brought my machine down to take you home, doc ...”

Only when she was in the motor car did she distinguish the three people who were to accompany them. The owner, now at the wheel, was the essence of decent self-satisfaction; a baldish, largish, level-eyed man, rugged of neck but sleek and round of face—face like the back of a spoon bowl. He was chuckling at her, “Have you got us all straight yet?”

“Course she has! Trust Carrie to get things straight and get ’em darn quick! I bet she could tell you every date in history!” boasted her husband.

But the man looked at her reassuringly and with a certainty that he was a person whom she could trust she confessed, “As a matter of fact I haven’t got anybody straight.”

“Course you haven’t, child. Well, I’m Sam Clark, dealer in hardware, sporting goods, cream separators, and almost any kind of heavy junk you can think of. You can call me Sam—anyway, I’m going to call you Carrie, seein’ ’s you’ve been and gone and married this poor fish of a bum medic that we keep round here.” Carol smiled lavishly, and wished that she called people by their given names more easily ...

Contentedly Sam Clark drove off, in the heavy traffic of three Fords and the Minniemashie House Free ’Bus.

“I shall like Mr. Clark ...I CAN’T call him ‘Sam’! They’re all so friendly.” She glanced at the houses; tried not to see what she saw; gave way in: “Why do these stories lie so? They always make the bride’s home-coming a bower of roses. Complete trust in noble spouse. Lies about marriage. I’m NOT changed. And this town— ...I can’t go through with it. This junk-heap!”

Her husband bent over her. “You look like you were in a brown study. Scared? I don’t expect you to think Gopher Prairie is a paradise, after St. Paul. I don’t expect you to be crazy about it, at first. But you'll come to like it so much—life’s so free here and best people on earth.”

Answer choice

A. She cannot remember their names and feels embarrassed.

B. She is mortified by how rowdy they are when they meet her.

C. She is irritated at the slow pace of disembarking from the train.

D. She does not appreciate that they all came to the train station to meet her.