clay endures. The place was beset by a hum and a glitter and a
mist; suspense brooded large o'er the blank, mysterious arena.
Strung up to the highest pitch of expectation, we knew not from
what quarter, in what divine shape, the first surprise would
come.

A thud of unseen hoofs first set us aquiver; then a crash of
cymbals, a jangle of bells, a hoarse applauding roar, and Coralie
was in the midst of us, whirling past 'twixt earth and sky, now
erect, flushed, radiant, now crouched to the flowing mane; swung
and tossed and moulded by the maddening dance-music of the band.
The mighty whip of the count in the frock-coat marked time with
pistol-shots; his war-cry, whooping clear above the music, fired
the blood with a passion for splendid deeds, as Coralie,
laughing, exultant, crashed through the paper hoops. We
gripped the red cloth in front of us, and our souls sped round
and round with Coralie, leaping with her, prone with her, swung
by mane or tail with her. It was not only the ravishment of her
delirious feats, nor her cream coloured horse of fairy breed,
long-tailed, roe-footed, an enchanted prince surely, if ever
there was one! It was her more than mortal beauty--displayed,
too, under conditions never vouchsafed to us before--that held us
spell-bound. What princess had arms so dazzlingly white, or went
delicately clothed in such pink and spangles? Hitherto we had
known the outward woman as but a drab thing, hour-glass shaped,
nearly legless, bunched here, constricted there; slow of
movement, and given to deprecating lusty action of limb. Here
was a revelation! From henceforth our imaginations would have to
be revised and corrected up to date. In one of those swift
rushes the mind makes in high-strung moments, I saw myself and