Better safe than sorry

“Better safe than sorry” is a proverb about precaution that recurs in two distinct moments, first as Myra Evans’s private justification for wearing sunglasses and later as Nettle Cobb’s muttered reason for checking her locked woodshed. The repetition links ordinary prudence to the characters’ unease: the precautions promise reassurance, but Nettle’s final check leads her to an unexpected interruption.

Myra’s precaution

Before going downtown, Myra puts on a large pair of Foster Grant sunglasses. She has already considered two sayings that seem to fit the situation, including the idea that what another person does not know will not hurt them; “Better safe than sorry” supplies a further justification for covering her eyes. The proverb frames the sunglasses as insurance against possible exposure, even as Myra approaches a door marked “TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.”

Nettle’s repeated checks

Later, Nettle locks her house and checks the shed at the rear before setting off for Polly Chalmers’s house. As she nears the end of the block, anxiety about the front door makes her turn back. After confirming that it is locked, she decides to check the woodshed once more, just to be safe. Her muttered use of the proverb gives the familiar phrase the rhythm of a self-reassurance, but her caution does not settle the scene.

The phrase as a refrain

The two uses give the same advice different immediate stakes. Myra’s precaution is something she puts on before entering a public encounter; Nettle’s is part of a sequence of locks checked and rechecked while she worries about what may happen at home. In Nettle’s case, the repeated checking culminates in a new discovery: as she reaches for the woodshed handle, she hears the telephone ringing inside. The proverb thus recurs at a point where caution has led not to simple reassurance, but to renewed uncertainty.