the
way.

The fat fiddler called out for the gentlemen to choose their partners for
a quadrille. Then came the long premonitory screeching of the fiddle-bow
across the cat-gut; then the slight, tremulous jingle of the tambourine,
as if the goggle-eyed negro were dying to begin; then the bustling and
hustling, and squeezing of the couples, until they had obtained their
places in the dance. Then the scientific look of the fat fiddler, as he
opened his eyes and surveyed the whole, to see that all was right; then
the slight clearing of his throat, as he threw his head on one side,
bellowed out 'right and left,' and forthwith plunged into the matter,
might and main. Away he went, but fast and furious at his heels followed
the little stunted fiddler; and loud above the din of both, rose the
rattle of the tambourine. 'Right hand across! forward two; balancez;
ladies chain; forward four; dos-a-dos; chassez to the right; cross over;
all round;' here, there, every where, and all over--he was up to it all.
In vain the dancers fairly flew; the fat fiddler was equal to all
emergencies; he never lagged; he was sometimes too fast, but never--no,
not for a single instant--was he behind.

'Whew!' said he, as he gave the final flourish of his bow, and laying it
aside, wiped his forehead on his coat-sleeve, and called for a tumbler of
cold water. And thereupon the stunted fiddler and the tambourine made the
same request; the latter suggesting that his glass might be tempered with
a 'small spirt of gin,' without hurting his feelings.

In that dance, the lightest step and merriest voice was that of Harson,
who led out the bride, and footed it there with the best of them; and who
through the whole evening was bustling around the room, with a kind word
for every one, and as much at home as if the house, and the company, and
even the bride, belonged to him. And in fact, one or two of the
guests--but they were unsophisticated people from the country--were for
some time under the delusion that Harry was the bridegroom, instead of the
quiet young fellow who was seen walking about the rooms, talking to the
disagreeable old women, and getting partners for the ugly young ones,
without their knowing it; but all in such an unobtrusive manner that he
seemed quite a nobody when compared with Harson.

But there must be an end even to the merriest meetings; and when they had
kept it up until the night had got among the small hours, they began to
drop