Marcus, as usual, was invited to be one of the party.

McTeague was in agony.

It was his first experience, and he suffered all the worse for it because he was totally unprepared.

What miserable complication was this in which he found himself involved?
It seemed so simple to him since he loved Trina to take her straight to himself, stopping at nothing, asking no questions, to have her, and by main strength to carry her far away somewhere, he did not know exactly where, to some vague country, some undiscovered place where every day was Sunday.
"Got any junk ?" "Huh?
What?
What is it ?" exclaimed McTeague, suddenly rousing up from the lounge.

Often Maria did very well in the "Dental Parlors." McTeague was continually breaking things which he was too stupid to have mended; for him anything that was broken was lost.