aise
slender barriers of silken cords at intervals across the hall, cutting
up the whole big area into three or four moderate-sized ones, in each of
which a distinct ring may spin round and round, without fear of
collisions with unexpected errant couples from other quarters of the
hall. Truly the ball committee deserve the credit of having been
ingeniously provident of many things; though, to be sure, it is just
part of their legal stock in trade to be so. But the author of that
arrangement in the passage-nooks--have you noticed it in your
between-dances saunterings?--smooth-hewn pyramids of crystal ice,
embowered in ferns and palms, and lit up from behind by some device
which makes them glow a lovely rose-color all over--that man deserves a
prize, I protest, for an inspiration that hardly could be expected from
the frowsy atmosphere of lawyers' chambers. It will be morning, pale and
gray, before the last volunteers see the last ladies to their carriage,
and betake themselves bedward with ears ringing with half a dozen waltz
tunes, and pleasantly oblivious for the nonce of briefs and work-a-day
botherations.

Kind, patient reader--I feel the adjectives are justly due to any one
who has accompanied my roving pen thus far--did you ever watch a
street-child eating, say, a jam-tart? The dry corners of pastry are
first all nibbled off; gradually the outworks where the jam lies thin
are trenched upon all round; while the toothsome centre is fondly kept
intact for the final morsel. Even so have I been reserving my _bonne
bouche_, the private ball; which in its happiest developments is, to my
thinking, as far superior to the semi-public ball as this latter to the
public. In its happiest developments, mind; for private balls in London
are as infinitely diverse in character as they are infinitely
multitudinous in number; and some sorts are (to speak politely)
comparatively undesirable. So, in deference to the exigencies of time
and space, let us confine our attention to the private dance as it
appears in what is called (or calls itself) "society."

And first, as to the people who give these private balls, or dances, or
dancing-parties (for these two synonyms are very commonly preferred to
the more pretentious word "ball"). They may be roughly classified under
five heads:

1st (and foremost). Mothers of marriageable daughters.

2d. People who for some reason or other--official or social position,
wealth, vanity, or what not--