THEY DO THE SAME IN ENGLA'ND
31
An interesting theory. Anyway, as we started dancing, no one looked
at me, so I gathered that my Iaclc
oi
a dinner jacket was not a fatal blunder.
Or else people were being polite. As
w~
waltzed over the floor, my com–
panion, who was busy nodding to right and left because she knew every–
body, said:
"If
you want to ask me questions, do. You look bewildered.
Well, go ahead and ask:, I work: in the inner office and k:now a lot about
the bosses." She spoke with a thick, German intonation, and her vowels
were very broad.
"Well, first of all," I said, "I know too much about England already
to believe that your company is paying these boys and girls decent wages.
And still the fellows are wearing tuxedos-"
"Rented," she smiled.
"And look at the girls. I'm no judge of silks and satins, but their
evening dresses look downright swanky, if I may say so."
A
wrinkle appeared upon my partner's brow. "It's sad. I know some
of the girls. They save all year for a single dress, a dress which they
probably can afford to wear only once a year. You don't know what
sacrifices they mak:e, even to ·come here where the company rents the place
for the evening and the tickets are cheap."
I answered that I did , looking at the thin faces and anemic bodies.
All
the girls seemed to have bony elbows and the fellows had those scholarly
looking hollows in their foreheads. We swung along, passing by the band–
stand.
A
young Negro girl with kinky hair, a Harlem accent and eyes
which rolled to heaven, was singing to the microphon·e "Something is
wrong with his boo-boo now ..." while the band-leader, dipping his knees
and smiling like a fiend, was shaking a gourd with some buck-shot inside
it. I glanced over my partner's shoulder an·d, coming closer to the other
couples, saw indeed that the tuxedos were not perfect fits. Many of the
fellows must have felt discomfort under the armpits, for their shoulders
were always twitching, and perspiration was pouring from their faces upon
their collars. Some of the suits were not rented, of course. In England,
where cheap clothes are cheap, almost as cheap as wages, one sees tuxedos
advertised in the
Daily Herald,
the Labour paper, for eight dollars, two
fittings guaranteed.
At the end of the number my companion led me over to the punch
table and introduced me to s·everal of her fellow office workers. You will
not believe it when I say that they were as polite and formal as the house
of lords. Their politeness was not cold or haughty, just politeness. One or
two, catching my American accent, looked as if they wanted to unbend
a bit. At that moment the band began to play again. I looked at my com–
panion with a glance which said I wanted to hunt me up a partner; she
understood with a smile, and I turned away.
