e got past that now--the panic stage, the pastime stage, the
cynical stage--"

"I suppose you're thinking of those last Edinburgh lectures? They're
the furthest I have got yet. I believe they are a very clever piece of
work, a sort of high-water mark. But there are so many pulls to jerk us
back from the high-water mark, don't you think? And as Louis--wasn't
it?--said, we most of us think better than we do--"

They had reached the haze of the ballroom by this time. People sitting
on the flour-bags sent up white auras which mingled with the dust and
the smoke of strong pipes to make an effective screen. Kraill looked
astonished. Marcella smiled.

"They say Englishmen take their pleasures sadly," he whispered
confidentially. "I don't think they could say the same for Colonials."

"They work so hard, and they like to let off steam sometimes," she said.
"By the way, I must simply say you are a friend from England. If I say
you are someone very wise they'll either be rude to you or frightened of
you. And all the girls will want to dance with you if I say you're from
London. They're mad on dancing, and they'll take it for granted that you
are. They'll expect you to teach them all the new things."

He looked startled as he watched the swaying crowd. It certainly looked
dangerous, if it was not difficult. The gramophone was playing the
"March of the Gladiators"; the mandolines were tinkling anything and the
mouth-organ had given it up entirely, merely punctuating the first beat
of every bar with a thin concussion of the bell. Betty had sprinkled the
floor with a slippery preparation she got from the store, called
"ice-powder."

"Be careful when you cross the floor. It's worse than ice, to make it
easy for those who can't dance. You just cling to someone and slip if
you don't know any steps. Some of them say their slip is a waltz: others
call it a gavotte, and some say it's the tango. Old Mike's very definite
that it's a jig. The great thing is to make the slip coincide with a
groan from the gramophone. Just watch a minute, and you'll see that
there is quite a lot of method in it."

She looked round for Louis, who was in a corner with some of the miners.
By his flushed face, his high voice and hysterical laugh she guessed
that she must try to keep him from seeing Kraill that night. She never
could be quite sure what he would do or say.

Mrs. Twist was pathetically honoured that the "gentleman from England"
should have ch