How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #4
[...]— all having taken pleasure from something or other, all having wept and suffered in some way, most of them tractable unless exasperated.[...] So, for the present, think of them as a whole. (Ballad.65)
The narrator instructs us to think of the town as whole. And doesn't that pretty much make sense? For the reader (an individual) has little in common with the townsfolk, but the townsfolk have so much in common with each other.
Quote #5
There was a tension [...] partly because of the oddity of the situation and because Miss Amelia was still closed off in her office and had not yet made her appearance. (Ballad.67)
By dividing herself from the crowd in her own store, Miss Amelia makes everyone else uncomfortable.
Quote #6
For the atmosphere of a proper café implies these qualities: fellowship, the satisfactions of the belly, and a certain gaiety and grace of behavior. This had never been told to the gathering in Miss Amelia's store that night. But they knew it of themselves, although never, of course, until that time had there been a café in the town. (Ballad.73)
The narrator seems interested in natural human intuition, the invisible inclinations we all fall into unknowingly. Where do you think these intuitions come from?