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The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid by Thomas Hardy
page 20 of 132 (15%)

'Never think of my objecting. What I have found out is something
which simplifies matters amazingly. In addition to your Yeomanry
Ball at Exonbury, there is also to be one in the next county about
the same time. This ball is not to be held at the Town Hall of the
county-town as usual, but at Lord Toneborough's, who is colonel of
the regiment, and who, I suppose, wishes to please the yeomen because
his brother is going to stand for the county. Now I find I could
take you there very well, and the great advantage of that ball over
the Yeomanry Ball in this county is, that there you would be
absolutely unknown, and I also. But do you prefer your own
neighbourhood?'

'O no, sir. It is a ball I long to see--I don't know what it is
like; it does not matter where.'

'Good. Then I shall be able to make much more of you there, where
there is no possibility of recognition. That being settled, the next
thing is the dancing. Now reels and such things do not do. For
think of this--there is a new dance at Almack's and everywhere else,
over which the world has gone crazy.'

'How dreadful!'

'Ah--but that is a mere expression--gone mad. It is really an
ancient Scythian dance; but, such is the power of fashion, that,
having once been adopted by Society, this dance has made the tour of
the Continent in one season.'

'What is its name, sir?'
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