Oh yes. Because speaking my mind in your presence has been so readily rewarded in the past. Why not attempt the same in front of a whole room of people where any derision I might receive from one of our company's leaders for it would instantly be made a matter of public account?

You said yourself you thought the dance pleasant. Do you really think that if I'd acted any differently then—if I hadn't been so mindful of every other time you have made me out to be so very small—that you would have felt the same? There was no choice in the thing at all!