"Good afternoon, Mr. Gregory!"
It was Matty Smith. She was hesitating for a cue from me. She wished to stop and thank me again for my speaking.
But from the other side Vanna Andrews was passing.
I ignored Matty with a face like a stone wall.
"Good afternoon!" I bowed to Vanna ... who ignored me ... perhaps not seeing me.
The fearful, hurt look in the negro girl's eyes made me so ashamed of myself that I wanted to run away and hide forever somewhere.
That night I was so covered with shame over what I had done to another human soul, a soul perhaps as proud and fine as any in Laurel, that it was not till dawn that sleep visited me....
So I was just as rotten, just as snobbish, just as fearful of the herd, as were these other human beings whom I made fun of as the bourgeoisie.
Speaking with Riley, one of the English professors, about the mixture of colours on the hill....