Summary

In “Cardboard and Lace (1910),” Ernest tries convincing Maisie to refuse being auctioned off to Louis Turnbull but Maisie does not listen to him. Ernest takes Maisie for a dress-fitting, where the clothier sneers at Ernest’s chauffeur outfit. “Through the kaleidoscope of Ernest’s imagination,” Ernest thinks “[Maisie] looked more beautiful than all the Jewels in all the Tenderloins in all the red-light districts in the whole world” (210). However, Ernest “f[inds] himself feeling guilty for admiring her. As if doing so made him complicit, somehow in league with the men who would be bidding” (210). Maisie asks Ernest how much he would pay for her and what he would want. Ernests says, “I’d pay the going rate--plus a nickel,” and that he would not want anything (210-1).

In “Five Thousand Reasons (1910),” Ernest recalls delivering invitations for Maisie’s coming-out...