handsomest man alive could hardly perform that feat gracefully); "before I promise, tell me what my duties will be."
"There will be fifty girls," I say, walking by his side, "without teachers, and you will have them all to yourself to pick and choose from, and you need not hurry yourself in the least about a partner, or be afraid of any one saying No, for you will be the only young man there."
"Delightful privilege!" says my companion.
"You will not be expected to dance with us all," I say reassuringly; "not more than fifteen at most! The other girls dance with each other."
"And what are you going to do?"
"I never dance," I say, shaking my head; "I have never learnt, and it is better not to make a spectacle of myself."
"Then you will not dance with me?"
"Oh no!" I say, "I could not think of such a thing. Even if I knew how, I should be ashamed to deprive the other girls of you; I see you sometimes, you know, and they do not, and they would think it so mean of me!"
CHAPTER XVII.
Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee."
Thursday evening has arrived, and eight o'clock is striking We are all assembled in the big dining-room, and our petticoats are so voluminous and our bodies so pranked forth, that, instead of fifty souls, we look as though we numbered two hundred at the very least. If a Frenchman were let loose among us, he would clasp his hands in speechless admiration at the amount of raw material before him, the fine eyes, the abundant hair, fair skins, and perfect
