ping you would tell us
things; and now--!

L. And now I am telling you things, and true things, and things good for
you; and you won't believe me. You might as well have let me go to sleep
at once, as I wanted to.

(_Endeavours again to make himself comfortable._)

ISABEL. Oh, no, no, you sha'n't go to sleep, you naughty--Kathleen, come
here.

L. (_knowing what he has to expect if_ KATHLEEN _comes_). Get away,
Isabel, you're too heavy. (_Sitting up._) What have I been saying?

DORA. I do believe he has been asleep all the time! You never heard
anything like the things you've been saying.

L. Perhaps not. If you have heard them, and anything like them, it is
all I want.

EGYPT. Yes, but we don't understand, and you know we don't; and we want
to.

L. What did I say first?

DORA. That the first virtue of girls was wanting to go to balls.

L. I said nothing of the kind.

JESSIE. 'Always wanting to dance,' you said.

L. Yes, and that's true. Their first virtue is to be intensely
happy;--so happy that they don't know what to do with themselves for
happiness,--and dance, instead of walking. Don't you recollect 'Louisa,'

'No fountain from a rocky cave
E'er tripped with foot so free;
She seemed as happy as a wave
That dances on the sea.'

A girl is always like that, when everything's right with her.

VIOLET. But, surely, one must be sad sometimes?

L. Yes, Violet; and dull sometimes, and stupid sometimes, and cross
sometimes. What must be, must; but it is always either our own fault,
or somebody else's. The last and worst thing that can be said of a
nation is, that it has made its young girls sad, and weary.

MAY. But I am sure I have heard a great many good people speak against
dancing?

L. Yes, May; but it does not follow they were wise as well as good. I
suppose they think Jeremiah liked better to have to write Lamentations
for his people, than to have to write that promise for them, which
everybody seems to hurry past, that they may get on quickly to the verse
about Rachel weeping for her children; though the verse they pass is the
counter-blessing to that one: 'Then shall the virgin rejoice in the
dance; and both young men and old together; and I will turn their
mourning into joy.'

(_The children get very serious, but look at each other, as
if pleased._)

MARY. They understand now: but, do you know what you said next?

L. Yes; I was not more than half asleep