His ball would serve by its exclusiveness to counteract leveling tendencies, and his marriage with Mrs. Dixon would help to further the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting for.
In conventional readings of the text, Mr. Ryder is celebrated for his ability to set aside his legitimate love for Mrs. Dixon in order to do his duty by acknowledging Liza Jane, the wife of his youth. However, this one line reinforces how Mr. Ryder isn't necessarily motivated solely by love, or perhaps even mostly by love. What he really wants is to continue to solidify his social position, and Mrs. Dixon can help him do that. When we learn that Mr. Ryder is actually Sam Taylor, this makes even more sense. Sam Taylor wasn't a slave but he could have been. He was privy to the same lack of social status and rights as the slaves around him; he was low class and thus inconsequential. When he came North, he worked as hard as he could to cover up his past, and marriage with Mrs. Dixon would be his crowning achievement. Thus, knowing his motivations might temper readers' encomiums of the duty-bound Mr. Ryder.
He looked long and intently at the portrait. It was faded with time, but the features were still distinct, and it was easy to see what manner of man it represented.
The daguerreotype is a symbol of the past, of Mr. Ryder as Sam Taylor. When he picks it up and looks at it, he is looking directly into the past. Importantly, Chesnutt says that even though it is worn with time, the features are still distinct enough. This suggests that even though Mr. Ryder worked assiduously to efface his past, it is still there and cannot be fully eradicated. Chesnutt then parallels Mr. Ryder's staring at the daguerreotype with his staring into the mirror at his current features, showing the confluence of past and present and indicating that Mr. Ryder is beginning the process of coming to terms with his identity.
"Perhaps he's outgrown you, and climbed up in the world where he wouldn't care to have you find him."
...
"I 'spec's ter haf ter suppo't 'im w'en I fin' 'im, fer he nebber would work 'less'n he had ter."
Mr. Ryder isn't exactly rude to Liza Jane, but he is a bit incredulous and skeptical of her after she concludes her story. He questions her numerous times about Sam Taylor, suggesting he died, or married someone else, or moved up in life and wants to forget her (this, of course, is an example of dramatic irony since the reader is just beginning to glean that this man may indeed be Mr. Ryder). Mr. Ryder's questions are not just motivated by his growing recognition and discomfort but by his race-based prejudice. He does not believe this lower-class, dark-skinned old black woman has really thought things through, has really evinced the sort of loyalty and dedication she claims to have all these years. He is finally swayed by her answers, but his paternalistic attitude is worth noting.
He had come to Groveland a young man, and obtaining employment in the office of a railroad company as a messenger had worked his way up to the position of stationary clerk, having charge of the distribution of office supplies for the whole company.
Chesnutt's description of the way Mr. Ryder (Sam Taylor) worked his way up from the South to the North, from messenger to businessman, from nobody to pillar of society, is the classic story of the black self-made man in the era of Reconstruction and Jim Crow. It is notable that this story of black people is set in the North, not the South. Chesnutt is not interested here in exploring the tensions between black people and white people, but within the black community itself. Though slavery is over, the legacies of racism remain. Whiteness is associated with beauty, power, and culture, and many black people themselves have this mindset ingrained. Chesnutt wants to push back at his black readers for their own prejudices.
"Permit me to introduce you to the wife of my youth."
At the very end of the story, Mr. Ryder chooses Liza Jane over Mrs. Dixon, but this isn't really a choice between two women. Rather, as critic Earle V. Bryant writes, "Chesnutt... is treating marriage as a metaphor." The wedding of Sam and Liza Jane in the past and the "wedding" they undergo before eyes of the crowd at the ball is meant to convey much more than two individuals being yoked together. Chesnutt uses "literal marriage to symbolize the 'wedding' of black folk to their racial and cultural identity." Mr. Ryder was committing "adultery" by leaving Liza Jane behind and pursuing Mrs. Dixon, which equated to leaving his blackness behind and pursuing whiteness; now, though, he has the opportunity to do things right.
