The following text is adapted from Charles Chesnutt’s 1899 story “The Wife of His Youth.” Mr. Ryder is hosting a formal gathering where he will propose marriage to the woman he has been courting.

[A] younger and less cautious man would long since have spoken. But he had made up his mind, and had only to determine the time when he would ask her to be his wife. He decided to give a ball in her honor, and at some time during the evening of the ball to offer her his heart and hand.