“But, Miss Sallie, I ’ll feel like a fool. Everybody in the country knows that I never entered a ball-room.”
“Do you care so much what everybody thinks about you?”
“No, but I care what I think of myself.”
“Well, if you don’t come in full dress suit, I won’t speak to you.”
He turned pale in spite of his effort at self control. Then a queer steel-like look came into his eyes.
“I shall be more than sorry to fail to please you, but I have no dress suit. I have never had time for social frivolities. I can’t afford to buy one for this occasion. I couldn’t be nigger enough to hire one, so that’s the end of it. I ’ll have to come dressed in my own fashion or stay at home.”
“Then you can stay at home,” she snapped.
“I ’ll not do it,” he coolly replied.
“Well, I like your insolence.”
“I’m glad you do. I ’ll come as I come to all such functions, an outsider. I ’ll sit out here on the porch in the shadows and see it from afar. If I could only dance, I assure you I’d try to fill every number of your card. Not being able to do so, I simply decline to make a fool of myself.”