dding to the people as they danced by, as if she had been
greeted by them. Only when the gendarme said:

"If I were allowed to marry, I'd take you."

She replied:

"Take me, indeed! But I shouldn't give myself!"

The gendarme was glad to have at least got an answer from her, and
continued:

"And if I were allowed to dance, I would have one with you right now."

"I cannot dance," replied Amrei.

Just then the music ceased. Amrei pushed against the people in front of
her, and made her way in to seek some retired corner. She heard some one
behind her say:

"Why, she can dance better than anybody in this part of the country!"

CHAPTER X

ONLY A SINGLE DANCE

Down from the musicians' platform Crappy Zachy handed a glass to Amrei.
She took a sip, and handed it back; and Crappy Zachy said:

"If you dance, Amrei, I'll play all my instruments so that the angels
will come down from the sky and join in."

"Yes, but unless an angel comes down from the sky and asks me, I shall
not get a partner," said Amrei, half in fun and half in sorrow. And then
she began to wonder why there had to be a gendarme at a dance; but she
did not hold to this thought long, but immediately went on to say to
herself: "After all, he is a man like anybody else, even though he has a
sword on; and before he became a gendarme, he was a lad like the rest.
It must be a plague for him that he can't dance. But what's that to me?
I, too, am obliged to be a mere spectator, and I don't get any money for
it."

For a short time things went on in a much more quiet and moderate manner
in the dancing-room. For the "English woman," as Agy, the wife of
Severin, the building contractor, was still called, had come to the
dance with her children. The rich wood-merchants set the champagne corks
to popping and offered a glass to the English woman; she drank the
health of the young couple and then made each one happy by a gracious
word. A constant and complacent smile was lighting up the face of
everybody. Agy honored many a young fellow who drank to her from the
garlanded glasses, by sipping from hers in return. The old women, who
sat near Barefoot, were loud in their praises of the English woman, and
stood up a long time before she came when they saw her approaching to
speak a few words to them. When Agy had gone away, the rejoicing,
singing, dancing, stamping, and shouting broke out again with renewed
vigor.

Farmer Rodel's foreman now came toward A