The St. Johns herald., 1900-08-18

hard to have imagined.
 Her programme was filled ten min- utes after she had entered the ball. room. and as she danced it seemed to | her that life was never so nearly per-
 feet as when the music throbbed. and
 everyone was gay-hearted, and the
 lights burned and the flowers perfumed
 the air. and she, Marie, could lend her.
 self to the rhythm and the joy and dance.
 Miss vanderpool," said one gentle
 man. as he led her to her seat, "I have
 danced with great many good dane CTS in my life. but have never enjoyed a waltz so much as the last one. It is
 the perfection of motion which you have. and it is chaHing gift. Really, l can call it nothing less than a gift" He had expected a careless acknowIedg-
 ment of this compliment, and was amazed when she said, gravely:
 And a gift is something which ought
 to be used. l suppose. That is what my sisters would say"
 "Then they would approve of you, surely. for have you not been putting it to the best use possible?"
 "I mean that it ought to be used for others"
 "It has been-for as many others as could avail themselves of it. I regret that it has not been used more for me. One dance is short allowance,it seems to me-"
 The beautiful head was shaken with yet greater gravity.
 "Some time soon am going to show you what l mean, Mir. Hadley," and then. smiling and dimpling, she went away with her next partner.
 It was a month later when Kenneth Hadley received letter from Miss Van derpook asking him to be at the Brown street settlement on a certain night. Mir. Hadley was not interested in set dement's, but he was in Miss Wander pool, and he accepted the invitation. His cab took him along a thronged street, past tenement houses and sa- looms and shops and stores till he came to the brightly lighted tenement house standing tidy and serene-looking, in the midst of block. He asked for Miss Vanderpool, and was shown past the crowded ciassrooms and lecture halls and music rooms to a room on the up- per floor. The sound of piano, violin and harp came out to salute his ears with a familiar tune, and he opened the door and stood within a large room filled with young men and women. But it was not party which he be- held. He saw that at once. It was dancing class. The pupils stood in line, awaiting the directions of their teacher.
 He looked about him for Miss Van derpool, but the chairs by the wall were vacant. Probably he had arrived too soon. However, he decided to in- quire of the teacher. At that moment he beheld her-Marie Vanderpool-in her pretty pink frock with it's short danc- ing skirt. standing before the class. It was she who was the teacher. Her eyes had never seemed brighter. The smiles which were never willing to leave her lips played about them be- witchingly. Her golden head looked more adorable and unkempt than ever. She seemed the incarnated spirit of the joy of life. She came running toward him.
 Come, come!" she cried. "I in- veigled you over here with purpose. I wanted you to show us the mazurka. You dance it so beautifully" She called to the musicians to play a ma zurka, gave the class permission to be seated, and poised herself delicately. Come, come!" she cried again. 'I in- sist on your dancing the best you know how"
 Kenneth Hadley. the dignified and reserved, the man who had thought himself a little better than others and had held himself somewhat haughtily aloof, bowed to his destiny and entered heart and soul upon his task.
 Nearly the whole evening was spent upon this dance.
 ''We must get it just right" Miss Van derpool insisted. You. see, we are not in quite the usual way on ac- count of a lack of the knowledge of the rudiments on the part of the teacher" And she laughed. "But we propose to dance as well as those who have learned in the regular, old-fashioned way"
 Hadley looked about him and saw in every face, whether it was that of a young man or young woman, of Jew or Christian, of German, Bohemian, Scandinavian, or Italian, of factory hand or worker in the stock yards. a look of admiration and respect for Miss Moreover, her infectious had brought vivacity and akin to delight even into the heaviest face.
 q never liked your dancing so much IS I do at this hour," he said to her, T wish I might help you now and then"
 70 you could, you could! But for you perhaps I should not have realized hat 1 had one talent. It never oc- cured to me that being happy and having light feet could be a talent"
 There was a Virginia reel-just by way of diversion-and Marie Wander pool fitted through it like a spirit of Tribune.
 FToxx- fo I,oo.a-T-o roAo-