to begin the dance, eh? Lead the way, then, and we'll all
follow you."

So Solomon, holding his white head on one side, and playing vigorously,
marched forward at the head of the gay procession into the White
Parlour, where the mistletoe-bough was hung, and multitudinous tallow
candles made rather a brilliant effect, gleaming from among the berried
holly-boughs, and reflected in the old-fashioned oval mirrors fastened
in the panels of the white wainscot. A quaint procession! Old
Solomon, in his seedy clothes and long white locks, seemed to be luring
that decent company by the magic scream of his fiddle--luring discreet
matrons in turban-shaped caps, nay, Mrs. Crackenthorp herself, the
summit of whose perpendicular feather was on a level with the Squire's
shoulder--luring fair lasses complacently conscious of very short
waists and skirts blameless of front-folds--luring burly fathers in
large variegated waistcoats, and ruddy sons, for the most part shy and
sheepish, in short nether garments and very long coat-tails.

Already Mr. Macey and a few other privileged villagers, who were
allowed to be spectators on these great occasions, were seated on
benches placed for them near the door; and great was the admiration and
satisfaction in that quarter when the couples had formed themselves for
the dance, and the Squire led off with Mrs. Crackenthorp, joining hands
with the rector and Mrs. Osgood. That was as it should be--that was
what everybody had been used to--and the charter of Raveloe seemed to
be renewed by the ceremony. It was not thought of as an unbecoming
levity for the old and middle-aged people to dance a little before
sitting down to cards, but rather as part of their social duties. For
what were these if not to be merry at appropriate times, interchanging
visits and poultry with due frequency, paying each other
old-established compliments in sound traditional phrases, passing
well-tried personal jokes, urging your guests to eat and drink too much
out of hospitality, and eating and drinking too much in your
neighbour's house to show that you liked your cheer? And the parson
naturally set an example in these social duties. For it would not have
been possible for the Raveloe mind, without a peculiar revelation, to
know that a clergyman should be a pale-faced memento of solemnities,
instead of a reasonably faulty man whose exclusive authority to read
prayers and preach, to christen, marry, and bury you, necessa