Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-04-12
What, sir?"-peremptorily.

You are coming to my ball, of course"
"Of course"
81 am afraid you will find our dances
rather old-fashioned: but you shall teach
Us some of the new ones. / saw mention
Ia one of those illustrated papers of a
waltz | think l should like to waltz.
viii you show me howl"
l bowed, and said | should be delighted
TO teach her anything in my power.
The ball was a great success. The Or
chestra consisted of a flute, q clarionet, a
key-bugle, a Carib guitar, and set Of
Pan's-pipes. The flute seemed to be new,
but the clarionet and bugle looked old
enough to have belonged to the bandsmen
Of the "Hecate" or the Santa Anna" Yet
they produced very fair music, and though
the men played without notes. they had a
great variety of airs, some of which
struck me as being singularly wild and
beautiful.
Ny uniform made quite sensation, and,
judging by the compliments l received, it
was much admired. Before l had been
many minutes in the room | booked sever
al engagements; for as Fair Island ladies
deem it not unmaidenly to ask men ION
ocCasiOn) TO be their partners for life, they
naturally see no improperly in asking
them to take part in a dance. They were
all tall, fine women; not a few We're very
well-fayOred, barring the Queerness of their
complexion, and two or three were as fair
as Queen Nab herself. They were lively.
too. and wonderfully graceful in their
movements, dancing with a ZeSt and ener
Cy unknown to the languid beauties of
European bathrooms. Being, moreover,
the descendants of the "Hecate's' officers
(the descendants of able-bodied and ordi-
nary seamen and warrant-Of1lcerS not be-
ing admitted into society, they were intel
ligenf. and, considering their opportunities,
well educated. Most of them had read
Shakespeare. Milton, Pope, "Plutarch's
Lives, Robinson CrusOe," and Pamela"
and were acquainted with the leading
facts of European history up to about 1740.
From that time forward, so far as regards
the outer world. their minds, like the minds
OF Fair Islanders generally, were a blank:
and it is hardly possible for those who
have not tried it to realize the difficulty of
keeping up a conversation with people who
know nothing of George Ill. and Napoleon,
Nelson ana Wellington, the Reform Bill
and Queen Victoria, the Indian Mutiny,
and the American Civil War, Bismarck
and the G. 0. NJ; who have never seen a
daily newspaper, a monthly review, or
railway; never heard of the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, or the Suez Canal;
lighting by gas or printing by steam, and
whose knowledge of fiction is limited to
Robinson CrusOe" and Pamela"
In these circumstances it was perhaps
fortunate that had little to do except an
swer questions, the ladies whose acquaint-
|
| soon found that if | wanted to be believed
l must keep back a portion of the truth.
When, in answer to question about the
size of London, l said that its population
was nearly four millions, and that hun
dred thousand strangers left and entered
it every day, the significant smile which
went round told me that the statement
was regarded as mOnstrous and incredible.
My account of the electric telegraph and
some other modern scientific and mechan-
ical achievements was received with even
greater incredulity especially by the men,
who, though too polite openly to doubt my
word, obviously thought me an uncOn-
sCionable rOmancer.
Only the queen affected 10 believe me-
either because she was naturally more in
telligent than the others, or that she was
fresh from the perusal of the books and
periodicals which we had brought from the
"Diana"-Or for some other and less obvi-
GUS reason.
The first dance was a Sir Roger de Gov
erly, in which | had Nab for a partner;
then followed a minuet, which, at her
pressing instance, / attempted-with poor
success, however. There was an immense
deal of bowling on the part of the men, and
courtesying on the part of the women, the
latter bending so low that more than once
disaster seemed imminent; but they always
recovered their perpendicular with re-
markable agility and grace. Next came a
fandangO, doubtless a bequest from DenZil
Fane's Spanish wife. After this the queen
asked me to show her how to waltz. She
proved an apt pupil-acqutred the step in
a few minutes; / whistled to the musicians
a few bars of a waltz, which they picked
up in no time, and the next moment we
were whirling round the roOm-to the as
constituent of all beholders. They had
never seen anything like it before. We
had long spin-Mab being in excellent
wind-and when | escorted her to her seat,
| could see by the manner of some of the
younger men that they envied me my good
fortune, and that the favor shown me by
the queen was beginning to excite jealousy
and might make me enemies. Be that as
it may, waltzing became the fashion. All
wanted to learn the step at once, and | had
very nearly as many invitations to dance
as there were young women in the room.
They voted me dancing master by acclama-
ton, and for the remainder of the night we
did nothing in the world but waltz
I'VE are infinitely obliged to you," said
the queen, as took my leave early in the
morning. You have given us anew pleas
ure"
He has, indeedr chorused twenty
voices. 1--WE are all infinitely obliged to
him"
"WaltzinG is simply diviner' she con-
tinued. 1--WE will have another ball-yes,
the night after tomorrow. All who are
here consider yourselves invited. and per
haps Mr.. Erie will kindly teach US some
thing else"
With this request was, of course, only
too glad to comply. l taught them the
polka and schottische, and we had a try at
the lanCers, with all of which the queen
and her guests were greatly delighted: and
Field told me that if went on as l had
begun, | should soon be the most popular
PSASth III L ar 1Sltilu.
was, moreover, often consulted by the
queen about the books she was reading.
She found in them so many things that
were strange to her, so many illusions
which she did not understand, that she
required almost continual instruction, and
/ became actually, if not officially, the
director of her studies and the superintend-
ent of her new education-for that she
called it, and that in fact it was.
All this augured we'll for the success of
my scheme. | could hardly think that af-
ter had done so much for her she would
refuse me the favor | intended to ask.
Nevertheless. l hesitated and procrastiu-
ated, missing more than one seemingly
good opportunity of preferring my request.
Why, can hardly say; partly, perhaps,
because something told me that it was
still too sOon-that the propitious moment
had not yet arrived; partly because the
Fair Islanders improved on acquaintance,
and that the more | saw of them and their
country the less l liked the idea of leaving
them.
As Ior the anonymous letter, had come
TO the conclusion that it was either a poor
Joke or piece of stupid spite, and Shouoh
l kept the misSive in my pocket, it very
soon passed out of my mind.
CHAPTER NXIL-A FLASH OF LIGHTNING
And so things went on. For two or three
weeks there occurred nothing TO disturb
the even tenor of my life. In the company
of Field and AmyaS Fame and some others,
and once with a party OrraniZai hy thu