The Card | Page 4

slipped into
Shillitoe's, the young tailor who had recently set up, and who was
gathering together the jeunesse dorée of the town.
"I want a dress-suit," he said.
Shillitoe, who knew that Denry only earned eighteen shillings a week,
replied with only superficial politeness that a dress-suit was out of the
question; he had already taken more orders than he could execute
without killing himself. The whole town had uprisen as one man and
demanded a dress-suit.
"So you're going to the ball, are you?" said Shillitoe, trying to
condescend, but, in fact, slightly impressed.
"Yes," said Denry; "are you?"
Shillitoe started and then shook his head. "No time for balls," said he.
"I can get you an invitation, if you like," said Denry, glancing at the
door precisely as he had glanced at the door before adding 2 to 7.
"Oh!" Shillitoe cocked his ears. He was not a native of the town, and
had no alderman to protect his legitimate interests.
To cut a shameful story short, in a week Denry was being tried on.
Shillitoe allowed him two years' credit.

The prospect of the ball gave an immense impetus to the study of the
art of dancing in Bursley, and so put quite a nice sum of money info the
pocket of Miss Earp, a young mistress in that art. She was the daughter
of a furniture dealer with a passion for the Bankruptcy Court. Miss
Earp's evening classes were attended by Denry, but none of his money
went into her pocket. She was compensated by an expression of the
Countess's desire for the pleasure of her company at the ball.
The Countess had aroused Denry's interest in women as a sex; Ruth
Earp quickened the interest. She was plain, but she was only
twenty-four, and very graceful on her feet. Denry had one or two
strictly private lessons from her in reversing. She said to him one
evening, when he was practising reversing and they were entwined in
the attitude prescribed by the latest fashion: "Never mind me! Think
about yourself. It's the same in dancing as it is in life--the woman's duty
is to adapt herself to the man." He did think about himself. He was
thinking about himself in the middle of the night, and about her too.
There had been something in her tone... her eye... At the final lesson he
inquired if she would give him the first waltz at the ball. She paused,
then said yes.
V
On the evening of the ball, Denry spent at least two hours in the
operation which was necessary before he could give the Countess the
pleasure of his company. This operation took place in his minute
bedroom at the back of the cottage in Brougham Street, and it was of a
complex nature. Three weeks ago he had innocently thought that you
had only to order a dress-suit and there you were! He now knew that a
dress-suit is merely the beginning of anxiety. Shirt! Collar! Tie! Studs!
Cuff-links! Gloves! Handkerchief! (He was very glad to learn
authoritatively from Shillitoe that handkerchiefs were no longer worn
in the waistcoat opening, and that men who so wore them were
barbarians and the truth was not in them. Thus, an everyday
handkerchief would do.) Boots!... Boots were the rock on which he had
struck. Shillitoe, in addition to being a tailor was a hosier, but by some
flaw in the scheme of the universe hosiers do not sell boots. Except

boots, Denry could get all he needed on credit; boots he could not get
on credit, and he could not pay cash for them. Eventually he decided
that his church boots must be dazzled up to the level of this great
secular occasion. The pity was that he forgot--not that he was of a
forgetful disposition in great matters; he was simply over-excited--he
forgot to dazzle them up until after he had fairly put his collar on and
his necktie in a bow. It is imprudent to touch blacking in a dress-shirt,
so Denry had to undo the past and begin again. This hurried him. He
was not afraid of being late for the first waltz with Miss Ruth Earp, but
he was afraid of not being out of the house before his mother returned.
Mrs Machin had been making up a lady's own materials all day,
naturally--the day being what it was! If she had had twelve hands
instead of two, she might have made up the own materials of
half-a-dozen ladies instead of one, and earned twenty-four shillings
instead of four. Denry did not want his mother to see him ere he
departed. He had lavished an enormous amount of brains and energy to
the end of displaying himself in this refined and novel attire to