went the dancing. The cause of his evasion or flight was variously
accounted for, some ascribing it to a debt he had contracted for
kid gloves and pumps, and others to dread of the wrath of a young
gentleman, whose sister he had been so imprudent as to kiss in the
presence of another girl, not remarkable for personal attractions, to
whom he had never paid the same compliment. As was to be expected, she
was scandalized at the impropriety and want of taste, and immediately
made it known, in spite of the entreaties of the blushing beauty and
the "pardons" of Monsieur. As Virgilius has it,

"Manet altã mente i epõstum,
Judicium Paridis spretæque injuria formæ."

In my opinion, it was the kiss that cost poor Monsieur Pied his
school, and me a dollar and a half, three dollars being the price
for a term's instruction. Not, I beg to be understood, that I care
anything about the money, but in relating an event I like to be
circumstantial and strictly accurate. But I find that, wiled away by
the painfully pleasing reminiscences of my youth, I am wandering
from my undertaking, which is, not to narrate the misadventures of a
dancing-master, but to compose a preface.

I had seated myself, as I was saying, in my little den or confugium,
where, as in a haven of rest, I love to hide myself from the
distractions of the world, and concentrate my thoughts, and which has
been to me the scene of many sad as well as pleasant hours, and dipped
my goose quill (anathema maranatha on steel pens, which I cannot help
fancying, impart a portion of their own rigidity to style, for if the
stylus be made of steel is it not natural that the style by derivation
and propinquity should be hard?) into the ink-stand, after first