They were so discouraging to me, and to the frivolous minority of pleasure-seekers, that I recommended lowering the price of admission so as to suit the means of any decent people who were willing to leave off money-grubbing and tear themselves from the charms of mutual instruction for one evening at least.

The proposition was indignantly negatived by the managers of the Institution.

I am so singularly obstinate a man that I was not to be depressed even by this.
My next efforts to fill the ballroom could not be blamed.

I procured a local directory, put fifty tickets in my pocket, dressed myself in nankeen pantaloons and a sky-blue coat (then the height of fashion), and set forth to tout for dancers among all the members of the genteel population, who, not being notorious Puritans, had also not been so obliging as to take tickets for the ball.

There never was any pride or bashfulness about me.