The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-02-24
OLD STEP To A NEW TUNE.

"One, two, three, four, five, SIX
One, two, three, four, five, six More
evenly, monsieur, if you please. You
must not rise SO much on the four
Again Four, five. SIX One, two,
three, four, five, SIX T. with n monot-
enous regularity that seemed to tell
of round of more or less stupid pupils
succeeding one another "pendingly.
But Mademoiselle GervauX, ftshion-
able dancing mistress of Silver street,
Golden Square, and every one admitted
who had ever taken a lesson Of her one
of the prethest girls to be met with in
town or country, had quick, laughing
eyes, which as present told OF more IN
terest than her business-like tone gave
hint of. She was of dark complexion,
with rather vivid color, and below the
middle height, aud was more richly
dressed than, knowing her station, one
would have expected.
Her present pupil had observed this I;
and, bent as he was on attaining the OBJ
ject for which he had sought Silver
street, and on attaining it as quickly rs
possible, he had yet given more atten-
tion than he otherwise would to his
teachers personal appearance.
1t was only IL O'clock in the morning,
and, however dazzling such persons may
appear at their weekly assemblies and
evening classes. he had not expected to
find such paragon of neatless and
taste at that hour in the morning. Cir
cling round the room by oneself, with
ones hands hanging i'll an ostentatiously
easy position, and ones figure reflected
IN g g., III |,
not way in which young man, even
of little vanity, would care to present
himself before a pretty girl; and the
Vicomte Alphonse Carmignol, of the
French navy, was quite as vain-having
indeed such reason as a good looking
face and o slight figure can give man
to be so--as most young men.
He was Frenchman who had been
for some time serving abroad, and with
distinction. He had Just arrived in
LONDON, and, rich, high-born and in n
small way famous, he found himself
warmly welcomed. Invitations to all
the best houses flowed in and Monsieur
10 Vicomte found it necessary to get the
assistance of friends well acquainted
with London society before he could de-
termino which of his cards he should
use, and which he should tacitly or ex-
pressly lay aside.
But of his many invitations one had
been accepted beforehand, and, in fact,
was the cause of his visit to England.
He was engaged to be married, and had
come over to be engaged to his fdncee
literally to be introduced to her, for
they had never met. Their families had,
in French fashion, made up the match,
and the two persons whom English
people would have considered most ill
terested had never come together at all.
This was Monday. On Wednesday
week there was to be o state dinner at
the French Embassy, followed by ball,
for the purpose of introducing Monsieur
Alphonse to the daughter of the Marquis
de la Penthiere, French Ambassador at
st. James. A little of English preju-
dice had been allowed TO creep in, in
Difference TO which the Vicomte had re-
ceived private invitation to tea on the
same afternoon, until which time, owing
to Der absence on visit in Shropshire,
the young lady would be invisible. In
one more week from that date they were
to be married-a queer arrangement TO
the English minds, but to the two famil-
les, and indeed TO the two persons who
i'll English eyes would have been "onsid-
cred victims To it, the most natural state
of things in the world.
Oddly enough, the Vicomte could not
dance the newest waltz which was then
the rage in London. New descriptions
of that dance succeeded one another SO
quickly that in these days 1t is easy for
a sailor, French by birth and fashiona-
BILE by station though he be, to return
from the service of his country and find
himself still "at sea on the weli-waxed
boards of ballroom. Such q state OF
things could not be permitted to con-
tinue, more especially as Mademoiselle
de 10 Penthiere would certainly expect
her fdncee to dance, and to dance well.
So the Vicomte had called in Silver
street one morning at an early hour,
had sent up his card, and had been duly
received by Mademoiselle Gervaux, and
had taken his first lesson at once. She
was not at all like the dancing-mistress
whom, from the description given by
the friends who had recommended him
to apply to her, he had expected to see.
But she evidently knew how to dance,
and she was very handsome and lady
like; and the young man found new