Even the waiters, Allie felt sure, noted the difference between the Briskows and the other guests, and only with difficulty concealed their contempt.
The occasional presence of Mrs.Ring, handsome, dignified, unruffled, intensified that contrast and fairly shouted the humiliating announcement that here were three nobodies who wanted to be somebodies, but never could.
Invariably when they went out in public together Mrs.Ring made Allie feel as if she belonged to a lower, cruder order of animal life; as if she were an inhabitant of another sphere.

And yet, Mrs.Ring was poor; she worked for wages! Allie could not understand this phenomenon; thought of it now caused her resentment to kindle.
Of course it was the lot of the hapless tutoress to select such a moment as this in which to sweetly chide the girl for some lapse of form.

Allie exploded.

She reduced the elder woman to tears, then, ashamed of herself, she flung blindly out of the room, crashing the door to behind her.

She decided to dance her anger away.