o, she danced down the center of the room, holding her flounces in
either hand, and kicking the floor until she kicked both her slippers
to pieces, when she finished the figure in her stocking feet.

She had a relay of slippers ready, and there was a scramble as to who
should put them on; but she settled that question by making 'Pollo rise,
with his fiddle in his arms, and lend her his chair for a minute while
she pulled them on herself. Then she let Pete and Pierre each have
one of the discarded slippers as a trophy. Lily had always danced out
several pairs of slippers at the Christmas dance, but she never achieved
her stocking feet in the first round until now, and she was in high
glee over it. If she had been admired before, she was looked upon as a
raving, tearing, beauty to-night, and so she was. Fortunately 'Pollo had
his fiddling to do, and this saved him from any conspicuous folly. But
he kept his eyes on her, and when she grew too ravishingly lovely to his
fond vision, and he couldn't stand it a minute longer in silence, he
turned to the man next him, who played the bones, and remarked, "Ef--ef
anybody but Gord A'mighty had a-made anything as purty as Miss Lily,
dey'd 'a' stinted it somewhar," and, watching every turn, he lent his
bow to her varying moods while she tired out one dancer after another.
It was the New Orleans fellow who first lost his head utterly. He had
danced with her but three times, but, while she took another's hand
and whizzed through the figures, he scarcely took his eyes from her,
and when, at about midnight, he succeeded in getting her apart for a
promenade, he poured forth his soul to her in the picturesque English of
the quadroon quarter of New Orleans. "An' now, to proof to you my lorv,
Ma'm'selle Leelee"--he gesticulated vigorously as he spoke--"I am
geeving you wan beau-u-tiful Christmas present--I am goin' to geev
you--w'at you t'ink? My borgee!" With this he turned dramatically and
faced her. They were standing now under the shed outside the door in
the moonlight, and, although they did not see him, Apollo stood within
hearing, behind a pile of molasses barrels, where he had come "to cool
off."

Lily had several times been "buggy-ridin'" with Pierre in this same
"borgee," and it was a very magnificent affair in her eyes. When he
told her that it was to be hers she gasped. Such presents were unknown
on the plantation. But Lily was a "mannerly" member of good society, if
her circle