f the music, pirouetting up and down and around, while
he watched her in mingled admiration and trepidation.

"There!" she cried, stopping before him; "it's perfectly simple, you
see. Now, you try it."

"By myself?" he inquired.

"Of course," she laughed. "How else can you learn?"

"All right," was the dubious assent; "but don't you think we might pull
those curtains down?"

"Nonsense! You might as well start in,--you couldn't look more foolish
than you do now."

"All right," he again assented, and took his place on the floor.

"Now, left foot forward--one, two, three, four. No; left foot, I said.
That's it. Now rise a little on your toes. Don't be so heavy, and for
Heaven's sake look as cheerful as you can!"

"This is awful!" Cosden ejaculated, mopping his forehead. "Don't you
think it's too warm a day to begin?"

"It isn't warm; it's really cool, and you haven't begun to begin yet.
Now start in again. Left foot,--left I say, one, two--oh! that miserable
victrola has stopped!"

"Let me wind it up," Cosden insisted quickly, glad of the opportunity to
struggle with something tangible.

"Now we'll try again," Edith said amiably. "This time get started before
the music runs down. Watch me just a moment. There,--now you know what
to do. Left, dear man, left,--not right, and rise on your toes, one,
two, three, four. Why don't you pay attention to the music?"

"I think I could learn better without the music. It throws me off."

"Move with it; then it will help you."

"I can't; it mixes me up."

"Don't you feel any impulse to move your feet when you hear that music?"

"Yes; I feel an inordinate desire to run out of the room."

"But, seriously, doesn't the rhythm of that one-step make you
instinctively want to dance?"

"Not the slightest. I never wanted to dance in my life until now, and
only now because you tell me that it's part of the game."

"Did you ever play any musical instrument?"

"Oh, yes; when I was a boy I played the bones in a minstrel show."

"Well, there's a ray of hope.--Wind up the victrola again, and we'll
start all over. You do wind it beautifully!"

"This is too big a job you've undertaken," he told her as they again
stood facing each other. "Let's call it off."

"No, indeed," Edith protested. "It is only fair to say that you are not
what would be called a natural dancer, but that will bring all the more
glory to your instructor when once you've learned. Why, look at the
tricks t