ow that I am indifferent.
Open-minded, perhaps,--though I don't know that that is calling it
rightly. The airs the angels sing, and the thundering march of the
damned through hell--why should I not listen to them both? I don't
believe in hell, nor much in angels, save one, but I like the argument.
Mr. Pincornet, I don't want to sleep. Suppose--suppose you teach me a
minuet?"

He laughed as he spoke, but he spoke in earnest. "Knowledge! I want all
kinds of knowledge. I know law, and I know what to do with a jury, and I
know tobacco--worse luck!--but I don't know the little things, the
little gracious things that--that make a man liked. If I were a
Federalist, and if I didn't know so much about tobacco, I would go, Mr.
Pincornet, to your dancing class at Fontenoy!" He laughed again. "I
can't do that, can I? The Churchills would all draw their swords. Come!
I have little time and few chances to acquire that which I have longed
for always,--the grace of life. Teach me how to enter a drawing-room;
how to--how to dance with a lady!"

His tone, imperious when he demanded the Marseillaise, was now genial,
softened to a mellow persuasiveness. Mr. Pincornet shrugged his
shoulders. He had been offended, but he was not unmagnanimous, and he
had a high sense of the importance of his art. He had seen in France
what came of uncultivated law-givers. If a man wanted knowledge, far be
it from Achille de Pincornet to withhold his handful! "You cannot learn
in a night," he said, "but I will show you the steps."

"I can manage a country dance, a reel or Congo," said Rand simply. "I
want to know politer things."

They left the terrace, went into the drawing-room, and lit the candles.
The floor, rubbed each morning until it shone, gave back the
heart-shaped flames. The slight furniture they pushed aside. The dancing
master tucked his violin under his chin, drew the bow across the
strings, and began the lesson.

The candles burned clear, strains of the _minuet de la cour_ rose and
fell in the ample room, the member from Albemarle and Mr. Pincornet
stepped, bent, and postured with the gravity of Indian sachems. The one
moved through the minuet in top-boots and riding-coat, the other taught
in what had been a red brocade. Rand, though tall and largely built,
moved with the step and carriage, light and lithe, of one who has used
the woods; the Frenchman had the suppleness of his profession and of an
ancient courtier. Now they bowed one to t