 Why does Hank wait for Edith to leave before he changes clothes?
The first man to return from beyond the Great Frontier may be welcomed ... but will it be as a curiosity, rather than as a hero...? There was the usual welcoming crowd for a celebrity, and the usual speeches by the usual politicians who met him at the airport which had once been twenty miles outside of Croton, but which the growing city had since engulfed and placed well within its boundaries. Still, he was the honored home-comer, the successful returnee, the hometown boy who had made good in a big way, and they took the triumphal tour up Main Street to the new square and the grandstand. There he sat between the mayor and a nervous young coed chosen as homecoming queen, and looked out at the police and fire department bands, the National Guard, the boy scouts and girl scouts, the Elks and Masons. Several of the churches in town had shown indecision as to how to instruct their parishioners to treat him. He wanted a meal at his own table, a kiss from his wife, a word from his son, and later to see some old friends and a relative or two. He had traveled and he had returned and his voyage was very much like the voyages of the great mariners, from Columbus onward—long, dull periods of time passing, passing, and then the arrival. He saw that as soon as the official car let him off at 45 Roosevelt Street. The head of the American Legion and the chief of police, who had escorted him on this trip from the square, didn't ask to go in with him. But when he looked back at them, their eyes dropped, they turned away, they began moving off. He walked up what had once been a concrete path and was now an ornate flagstone path. They held onto each other as if seeking mutual support, the thirty-three-year old woman and ten-year-old boy. He kissed her—her neck, her cheek—and all the old jokes came to mind, the jokes of travel-weary, battle-weary men, the and- then -I'll-put-my-pack-aside jokes that spoke of terrible hunger. So he put him down and told himself that it would all change, that everything would loosen up just as his commanding officer, General Carlisle, had said it would early this morning before he left Washington. Edith was leading him into the living room, her hand lying still in his, a cool, dead bird lying still in his.
 He doesn't want Edith to see the scars on his body. It will just remind her he died.
 Edith bought separate beds while he was gone. Undressing in front of her may make her uncomfortable.  The new bedroom arrangement put them in separate beds. He doesn't want Edith to feel uncomfortable by his undressing.  He doesn't want Edith to see the scars on his body. It will just remind her he died.  He doesn't want Edith to see the scars on his body. Scars may put a damper on the romance.