“Oh, I’m too excited to sit still — it’s so near Christmas — let us play at something.”
“A dance?” said Emily.
“A dance — a dance!”
He suddenly sat straight and got up.
“Come on!” he said.
He kicked off his slippers, regardless of the holes in his stocking feet, and put away the chairs. He held out his arm to her — she came with a laugh, and away they went, dancing over the great flagged kitchen at an incredible speed. Her light flying steps followed his leaps; you could hear the quick light tap of her toes more plainly than the thud of his stockinged feet. Emily and I joined in. Emily’s movements are naturally slow, but we danced at great speed. I was hot and perspiring, and she was panting, when I put her in a chair. But they whirled on in the dance, on and on till I was giddy, till the father, laughing, cried that they should stop. But George continued the dance; her hair was shaken loose, and fell in a great coil down her back; her feet began to drag; you could hear a light slur on the floor; she was panting — I could see her lips murmur to him, begging him to stop; he was laughing with open mouth, holding her tight; at last her feet trailed; he lifted her, clasping her tightly, and danced twice round the room with her thus. Then he fell with a crash on the sofa, pulling her beside him. His eyes glowed like coals; he was panting in sobs, and his hair was wet and glistening. She lay back on the sofa, with his arm still around her, not moving; she was quite overcome. Her hair was wild about her face. Emily was anxious; the father said, with a shade of inquietude:
“You’ve overdone it — it is very foolish.”
When at last she recovered her breath and her life, she got up, and laughing in a queer way, began to put up her hair. She went into the scullery where were the brush and combs, and Emily followed with a candle. When she returned, ordered once more, with a little pallor succeeding the flush, and with a great black stain of sweat on her leathern belt where his hand had held her, he looked up at her from his position on the sofa, with a peculiar glance of triumph, smiling.
“You great brute,” she said, but her yoke was not as harsh as her words. He gave a deep sigh, sat up, and laughed quietly. “Another?” he said.
“Will you dance with me?”
“At your pleasure.”
“Come then — a minuet.”
“Don’t know it.”
“Nevertheless, you must dance it. Come along.”
He reared up, and walked to her side. She put him through the steps, even dragging him round the waltz. It was very ridiculous. When it was finished she bowed him to his seat, and, wiping her hands on her handkerchief, because his shirt where her hand had rested on his shoulders was moist, she thanked him.
“I hope you enjoyed it,” he said.
“Ever so much,” she replied.
“You made me look a fool — so no doubt you did.”
“Do you think you could look a fool? Why, you are ironical! Ca marche! In other words, you have come on. But it is a sweet dance.”
He looked at her, lowered his eyelids, and said nothing. “Ah, well,” she laughed, “some are bred for the minuet, and some for —”
“— Less tomfoolery,” he answered.
“Ah — you call it tomfoolery because you cannot do it. Myself, I like it — so —”
“And I can’t do it?”
“Could you? Did you? You are not built that way.”
“Sort of Clarence MacFadden,” he said, lighting a pipe as if the conversation did not interest him.
“Yes — what ages since we sang that!”
‘Clarence MacFadden he wanted to dance But his feet were not gaited that way . . . ’
“I remember we sang it after one corn harvest — we had a fine time. I never thought of you before as Clarence. It is very funny. By the way — will you come to our party at Christmas?”
“When? Who’s coming?”
“The twenty-sixth — Oh! — only the old people — Alice — Tom Smith — Fanny — those from Highclose.”
“And what will you do?”
“Sing — charades —— dance a little — anything you like.”
“Polka?”
“And minuets — and valetas. Come and dance a valeta, Cyril.”
She made me take her through a valeta, a minuet, a mazurka, and she danced elegantly, but with a little of Carmen’s ostentation — her dash and devilry. When we had finished, the father said:
“Very pretty — very pretty, indeed! They do look nice, don’t they, George? I wish I was young.”
“As I am —” said George, laughing bitterly.
“Show me how to do them — some time, Cyril,” said Emily, in her pleading way, which displeased Lettie so much. “Why don’t you ask me?” said the latter quickly. “Well — but you are not often here.”
“I am here now. Come —” and she waved Emily imperiously to the attempt.
Lettie, as I have said, is tall, approaching six feet; she is lissome. but firmly moulded, by nature graceful; in her poise and harmonious movement are revealed the subtle sympathies of her artist’s soul. The other is shorter, much heavier. In her every motion you can see the extravagance of her emotional nature. She quivers with feeling; emotion conquers and carries havoc through her, for she had not a strong intellect, nor a heart of light humour; her nature is brooding and defenceless; she knows herself powerless in the tumult of her feelings, and adds to her misfortunes a profound mistrust of herself.
As they danced together, Lettie and Emily, they showed in striking contrast. My sister’s ease and beautiful poetic movement were exquisite; the other could not control her movements, but repeated the same error again and again. She gripped Lettie’s hand fiercely, and glanced up with eyes full of humiliation and terror of her continued failure, and passionate, trembling, hopeless desire to succeed. To show her, to explain, made matters worse. As soon as she trembled on the brink of an action, the terror of not being able to perform it properly blinded her, and she was conscious of nothing but that she must do something — in a turmoil. At last Lettie ceased to talk, and merely swung her through the dances haphazard. This way succeeded better. So long as Emily need not think about her actions, she had a large, free grace; and the swing and rhythm and time were imparted through her senses rather than through her intelligence.
It was time for supper. The mother came down for a while, and we talked quietly, at random. Lettie did not utter a word about her engagement, not a suggestion. She made it seem as if things were just as before, although I am sure she had discovered that I had told George. She intended that we should play as if ignorant of her bond.
After supper, when we were ready to go home, Lettie said to him:
“By the way — you must send us some mistletoe for the party — with plenty of berries, you know. Are there many berries on your mistletoe this year?”
“I do not know — I have never looked. We will go and see — if you like,” George answered.
“But will you come out into the cold?”
He pulled on his boots, and his coat,