Geo'ge?"

"N-o, I'm afraid it would be too late," returned Tryon doubtfully.

"Den I'll haf ter ax 'er ter lemme go nex' day," said Plato, with
resignation. The honor might be postponed or, if necessary, foregone;
the opportunity to earn a dollar was the chance of a lifetime and must
not be allowed to slip.

"No, Plato," rejoined Tryon, shaking his head, "I shouldn't want to
deprive you of so great a pleasure." Tryon was entirely sincere in
this characterization of Plato's chance; he would have given many a
dollar to be sure of Plato's place and Plato's welcome. Rena's letter
had re-inflamed his smouldering passion; only opposition was needed to
fan it to a white heat. Wherein lay the great superiority of his
position, if he was denied the right to speak to the one person in the
world whom he most cared to address? He felt some dim realization of
the tyranny of caste, when he found it not merely pressing upon an
inferior people who had no right to expect anything better, but barring
his own way to something that he desired. He meant her no harm--but he
must see her. He could never marry her now--but he must see her. He
was conscious of a certain relief at the thought that he had not asked
Blanche Leary to be his wife. His hand was unpledged. He could not
marry the other girl, of course, but they must meet again. The rest he
would leave to Fate, which seemed reluctant to disentangle threads
which it had woven so closely.

"I think, Plato, that I see an easier way out of the difficulty. Your
teacher, I imagine, merely wants some one to see her safely home.
Don't you think, if you should go part of the way, that I might take
your place for the rest, while you did my errand?"

"Why, sho'ly, Mars Geo'ge, you could take keer er her better 'n I
could--better 'n anybody could--co'se you could!"

Mars Geo'ge was white and rich, and could do anything. Plato was proud
of the fact that he had once belonged to Mars Geo'ge. He could not
conceive of any one so powerful as Mars Geo'ge, unless it might be God,
of whom Plato had heard more or less, and even here the comparison
might not be quite fair to Mars Geo'ge, for Mars Geo'ge was the younger
of the two. It would undoubtedly be a great honor for the teacher to
be escorted home by Mars Geo'ge. The teacher was a great woman, no
doubt, and looked white; but Mars Geo'ge was the real article. Mars
Geo'ge had never been known to go with a black woman before, and the