In general every effort has been made to replicate the original text as faithfully as possible, including some instances of non-standard spelling and punctuation (for example, ellipses spacing and size). Hyphenation has been standardized. The transcriber notes that one of the main characters, "Ann Doherty," is anomalously referred to as "Nancy" once on p. 43, and again in the jacket flap notes; this has not been altered. Another main character is often referred to by his initials, "T. J."; on p. 79 and beyond this becomes "T.J."; this has also not been altered. The original book did not have page numbers on chapter heading pages; this has been emulated in the html version.
The following changes were made to repair apparently typographical errors:
copyright statement below title page "for permisison to use a" permisison changed to [permission]
p. 28 "then, eatingly loudly and cheerfully" eatingly changed to [eating]
p. 68 "There she goes snifflling" snifflling changed to [sniffling]
p. 94 "Walton Road betwen 9:10" betwen changed to [between]
p. 111 "my own langugage far simpler" langugage changed to [language]
p. 121 "solitary as as any other" as as changed to [as]
p. 121 "instance: What do do?" first do changed to [to]
p. 122 "Adante does not mean Adagio" Adante changed to [Andante]
p. 206 "I'll be such an actesss" actesss changed to [actress]
p. 228 "doddle-pad rather angrily crossed" doddle changed to [doodle]
p. 246 "a fairly advanced science notice" notice changed to [noticed]
p. 275 "and then--"to keep you and me" --"to changed to [--'to]
jacket flap text "her defending council" council changed to [counsel]