none the less afraid to move.

'I am afraid of falling down,' she said.

'Lean on me; you will soon get used to it,' he replied. 'You have no
nails in your shoes now, dear.'

His words, like all his words to her, were quite true. She found it
amazingly easy in a brief space of time. The floor, far from
hindering her, was a positive assistance to one of her natural
agility and litheness. Moreover, her marvellous dress of twelve
flounces inspired her as nothing else could have done. Externally a
new creature, she was prompted to new deeds. To feel as well-dressed
as the other women around her is to set any woman at her ease,
whencesoever she may have come: to feel much better dressed is to
add radiance to that ease.

Her prophet's statement on the popularity of the polka at this
juncture was amply borne out. It was among the first seasons of its
general adoption in country houses; the enthusiasm it excited to-
night was beyond description, and scarcely credible to the youth of
the present day. A new motive power had been introduced into the
world of poesy--the polka, as a counterpoise to the new motive power
that had been introduced into the world of prose--steam.

Twenty finished musicians sat in the music gallery at the end, with
romantic mop-heads of raven hair, under which their faces and eyes
shone like fire under coals.

The nature and object of the ball had led to its being very