the shoes and jewels, and the
soft clouds of muslin and lace that shivered and rustled as the ladies
stepped; the firelight shone through the wide doorway on this glowing
movement, and groups of candles in sconces within the room increased and
steadied the soft intensity of the light. The soft tingling instruments,
with the slow tap-tap marking the measure like a step, seemed a
translation into chord and melody of this stately tender exercise. And so
this glorious flower-bed, loaded too with a wealth of essences in the
dresses and the sweet-washed gloves, swayed under the wind of the music,
bending and rising together in slow waves and ripples. Then it ceased;
and the silence was broken by a quick storm of applause; while the
dancers waited for the lutes. Then all the instruments broke out together
in quick triple time; the stringed instruments supplying a hasty
throbbing accompaniment, while the shrill flutes began to whistle and the
drums to gallop;--there was yet a pause in the dance, till the Queen made
the first movement;--and then the whole whirled off on the wings of a
_coranto_.

It was bewildering to Anthony, who had never even dreamed of such a dance
before. He watched first the lower line of the shoes; and the whole
floor, in reality above, and in the mirror of the polished boards below,
seemed scintillating in lines of diamond light; the heavy underskirts of
brocade, puffed satin, and cloth of gold, with glimpses of foamy lace
beneath, whirled and tossed above these flashing vibrations. Then he
looked at the higher strata, and there was a tossing sea of faces and
white throats, borne up as it seemed--now revealed, now hidden--on clouds
of undulating muslin and lace, with sparkles of precious stones set in
ruff and wings and on high piled hair.

He watched, fascinated, the faces as they appeared and vanished; there
was every imaginable expression; the serious looks of one who took
dancing as a solemn task, and marked her position and considered her
steps; the wild gaiety of another, all white teeth and dimples and eyes,
intoxicated by movement and music and colour, as men are by wine, and
guided and sustained by the furious genius of the dance, rather than by
intention of any kind. There was the courtly self-restraint of one tall
beauty, who danced as a pleasant duty and loved it, but never lost
control of her own bending, slender grace; ah! and there was the oval
face crowned with auburn hair and pearls, th