shining.

"_Grand_ right and left!" shouted Frank.

Vincent's hand was seized by the little Powers girl. She swung him
competently and passed him on to her mother, who swam past him like a
goddess, a golden aroma of health and vivid sensual seduction trailing
from her as she moved.

Then it was Marise's hand in his . . . how strange, how strange . . . that
hand which knew the secrets of Debussy's heart. . . . She grasped his
fingers firmly and looked at him full, laughingly, her face as open as
a child's . . . the many-sided tantalizing creature! She pulled him about
and was gone.

And there was old Mrs. Powers in her place, absurdly light and elastic,
treading the floor in her flat, old-woman's shoes with brilliant
precision.

"_All_ promenade!" cried Frank, this time his voice exultant that the
end was successfully reached.

He seized Nelly by the waist and danced with her the length of the room,
followed by the other couples. The music stopped. He released her
instantly, made a strange, stiff little bow, and turned away. The set
was over.

"There!" said Mrs. Powers, breathing quickly. "'Twan't so hard as you
thought 'twas goin' to be, was it?"

"Good-evening," said Mr. Bayweather on the other side, wiping the pink
roll at the back of his neck. "What do you think of our aboriginal
folk-dancing? I'll warrant you did not think there was a place in the
United States where the eighteenth century dances had had an
uninterrupted existence, did you?"

"I assure you I had never thought about the subject at all," said
Vincent, edging away rapidly towards escape.

"Fascinating historical phenomenon, I call it," said the clergyman.
"Analogous to the persistence of certain parts of old English speech
which is to be observed in the talk of our people. For instance in the
eighteenth century English vocabulary, the phrase . . ."

His voice died away in the voices of the people Vincent had put
resolutely between them shoving his way through the crowd, recklessly.
He was struck by the aspect of the people, their blood warmed, their
lips moist, their eyes gleaming. The rooms were growing hot, and the
odor of pines was heavy in the air.

He found himself next to Nelly Powers, and asked her to dance with him,
"although I don't know at all how to do it," he explained. She smiled,
silently, indifferently, confidently, and laid her hand on his arm in
token of accepting his invitation. Vincent had a passing fancy that she
di