 Laura and Mama had newly arrived from Virginia City, where their family-style rooming house had netted them $45,000. During the years and the welter of collecting the rents, changing sheets and towels, and setting the board with succulents, Mama had gained and lost three sons-in-law. It seemed that fate consistently made her daughter a hard woman to be married to. Laura's three husbands, each of them, died.