rriage was to be the end, that was a matter of business not
adapted for a ballroom. She would not allow herself to be led away to
the conservatory or any other retired nook such as Montjoie felt he must
find for this affecting purpose. Bice did not want to be proposed to.
She wanted to dance. She abandoned him for other partners without the
slightest evidence of regret. She even accepted, when he was just about
to seize upon her at the end of a dance, Mr. Derwentwater, preferring to
dance the Lancers with him to the bliss of sitting out with Lord
Montjoie. That forsaken one gazed at her with a consternation beyond
words. To leave him and the proposal that was on his very lips for a
square dance with a tutor! The young Marquis gazed after her as she
disappeared with a certain awe. It could not be that she preferred
Derwentwater. It must be her cleverness which he could not fathom, and
some wonderful new system of Italian subtlety to draw a fellow on.

"I like it better than standing still--I like it--enough," said Bice.
"To dance, that is always something." Mr. Derwentwater also felt, like
Lord Montjoie, that the young lady gave but little importance to her
partner.

"You like the rhythm, the measure, the woven paces and the waving
hands," her companion said.

Bice stared at him a little, not comprehending. "But you prefer," he
continued, "like most ladies, the modern Bacchic dance, the whirl, the
round, though what the old Puritans call promiscuous dancing of men and
women together was not, I fear, Greek----"

"I know nothing of the Greeks," said Bice. "Vienna is the best place for
the valse, but Greek--no, we never were there."

"I am thinking of classic terms," said MTutor with a smile, but he liked
her all the better for not knowing. "We have in vases and in sculpture
the most exquisite examples. You have never perhaps given your attention
to ancient art? I cannot quite agree with Mr. Alma Tadema on that point.
He is a great artist, but I don't think the wild leap of his dances is
sanctioned by anything we possess."

"Do not take wild leaps," said Bice, "but keep time. That is all you
require in a quadrille. Why does every one laugh and go wrong. But it is
a shame! One should not dance if one will not take the trouble. And why
does _he_ not do anything?" she said, in the pause between two figures,
suddenly coming in sight of Jock, who stood against the wall in their
sight, following her about with eyes over whi