blushed, and sighed, and said nothing.

You see I had got on as well as man could do, until the confounded court
season and the balls began, and then--why, then came my usual luck.

Waltzing is a part of a German girl's life. With the best will in the
world--which, I doubt not, she entertains for me, for I never put the
matter of marriage directly to her--Dorothea could not go to balls and
not waltz. It was madness to me to see her whirling round the room
with officers, attaches, prim little chamberlains with gold keys and
embroidered coats, her hair floating in the wind, her hand reposing upon
the abominable little dancer's epaulet, her good-humored face lighted up
with still greater satisfaction. I saw that I must learn to waltz too,
and took my measures accordingly.

The leader of the ballet at the Kalbsbraten theatre in my time was
Springbock, from Vienna. He had been a regular zephyr once, 'twas said,
in his younger days; and though he is now fifteen stone weight, I can,
helas! recommend him conscientiously as a master; and I determined to
take some lessons from him in the art which I had neglected so foolishly
in early life.

It may be said, without vanity, that I was an apt pupil, and in the
course of half a dozen lessons I had arrived at very considerable
agility in the waltzing line, and could twirl round the room with him
at such a pace as made the old gentleman pant again, and hardly left him
breath enough to puff out a compliment to his pupil. I may say, that in
a single week I became an expert waltzer; but as I wished, when I came
out publicly in that character, to be quite sure of myself, and as I had
hitherto practised not with a lady, but with a very fat old man, it was