erybody is more or less grouped together, and you
generally know in which part of the room you are to find your friends.
You exchange greetings with the women you know, and if you wish to ask
one of them to dance, you say, "May I have the pleasure of this turn
with you?" or "Can I have a turn with you?" It is absolutely impossible
to keep dance engagements, and you are obliged, perhaps, to snatch a
dance whenever you can get it. After your turn you must always manage to
stop at about the point where you began. You will be sure to find your
partner's chaperon just at that place. There are two reasons for
this--one is that the man with whom your partner has engaged weeks, if
not months, before (one has to do this in New York) to dance the
cotillon has reserved his chairs there, and she has told many of her
friends just about in which part of the ballroom she may be found; and
another is that New York women, under all circumstances, keep a
distinctive place in a ballroom.

A gentleman never dances without gloves. He always puts them on before
entering the ballroom. A man should dance easily and gracefully, and
look as if he were enjoying himself. He should be careful about guiding
and not running into people. Swinging the hands is vulgar and unsightly.
The waltz seems to survive all other forms of dancing, but there is
every now and then a revival of the polka. Two steps and fancy dances
are the vogue at summer hotels, but not at smart functions.

The quadrille of to-day is the simple lancers, and some years ago it was
a silly fad to pretend not to remember the figures. A little life and
spirit are sometimes introduced in the lancers when the gathering is
small, and among intimate friends there is more or less occasion for it.
The barn dance has gone out of fashion entirely in America, but our
English cousins, especially those living in the country and in Suburbia,
are very fond of it. Balls frequently end with Sir Roger de Coverley,
the English form of the Virginia reel.

About two o'clock supper is announced, and this is done all over the
world, I believe, by the strains of the Priests' March in Norma. So it
was in my grandfather's day, and so it is to-day and was at the very
last Patriarchs', the very last Assembly, and the very last large ball
at Newport. Engagements for supper are made in New York weeks or even
months beforehand. You should settle this with your partner, and as
supper is served at tables of parties