The Cruelest Performance — Alice Adams

Alice's absent-partner act expires under the clock rules Tarkington spells out: fifteen minutes, twice a night at most, or the betrayal shows. She resents the lounging men who will not ask her to dance while envying Ella Dowling's wooden patience beside her mother. Harvey Malone, a glossy former suitor now killing time before dancing with Henrietta Lamb, drops into her saved chair and speaks with lazy familiarity. Alice abandons the box-trees, hides in the dressing room until the attendant repairs her slipper, then chats too eagerly with matrons who will not chaperone her reputation. Frank Dowling returns, tears her dress on the floor, and Mrs. Dowling schedules him elsewhere. Mildred finally presents Arthur Russell, who dances with Alice as social charity; his hearty kindness feels worse than neglect because she knows the script. She sends him to find Walter, hoping to salvage dignity, and he does, exposing Walter shooting dice with coloured attendants in the cloak-room. After one last dance and Walter's promise to stay for supper, Alice tells her mother the evening was just lovely, then collapses sobbing against her in the hall. The public performance ends where it always does: alone with the people who already know the bill is due.