Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-10
The Wedding Dance
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drank kremloff sank back to his chair and
stared ahead, the queer grin still on his lips.
&" 1t is Just thlrty-hVe years ago to this
very day-that what he meant-that he
went to the ship to meet Anna, whispered
Feltman to the boy; but he said nothing OF
the other thing that had come into his mind
said nothing regarding the new violinist with
the long gray locks and black, womanly eyes.
THE band began to play. At the first chord,
= Uncle Feltman sat suddenly. upright, send
ing swift look toward Ivan kremlott. FOR
the band playing the pastoral Russian
wedding dance. The music began Croonlngly,
with swapping, spasmodic notes here and there
to catch the ear,-little, quick touches OF
sound, to start ones nerves atingng Father
Ivan" his ruddy face flushed by the liquor he
had taken until it was scarlet, sat wagglng his
great head with its crest of silver curls tugglng
at an end of his huge, white mustache, hum
ming the tune moving his body to the beats
of the music.
Then he got up. His bulky figure came
lurching down the room, past the tables, till
he stood in the small cleared space before the
band. And in the proper instant, he placed his
hands on his hips, threw up his big head, and
assumed the posture for the dance. In the
same instant he caught full glance into the
eyes of the leader, and the other stared fas-
cinated mechanically moving his bow over
the responsive strings.
The cronies of the old side - room thumped
InelT glasses, laughed d1lu CuctlCu W SSS
Father Ivan" the retcent, the recluse. in
such merry mood. Only, among them Uncle
Feltman did not laugh He eyed his old friend
anxiouslv.
The grooming prelude done, the music rose
and swung to the ferv action of the dance.
Father Ivan, hands on hips, took the chal-
lenge, and for all his bulk of body he kicked
and shuff1ed, bent and Strengthened, whlrled
and recovered, in perfect rhythm to the sharp
and swapping chords. Higher and faster the
~
more dizzily, the huge figure in the loose suit
OF blue jeans swung and swept round the floor
And at the final crash, he came with stamping
foot into rigid, arm extended polse, staring
straight again into the face of the leader of the
band. laughing strangely as II triumphantly
at the little man ahead.
SOFTLY again the music started grooming as
- before. Slowly, softly, :" Father Ivan
stepped, beginning the second figure OF the
dance. But now, as the music rose again, as
the violins screamed and the cello throbbed,
as the old crones of the side room left their
tables and crowded to witness the final effort
of the huge numbering performer, Uncle Felt
man. staring, the ruddlness OF Father
Ivan's" face take on a darker hue, and, sharply
he recognized a mailman glittering express
sion in his old friends eyes. As he kicked and
swayed and turned, he spoke,-spoke to some
thing that he seemed to see before him, as II
some face very close to his face. And II
loft saw no face that was really in that room,
and that he no more saw at all the laughing
crowd around him. And furthermore. it
plain to him that the scarlet OF the man S face
he gathered for the final, tremendous effort
of the dance empurpling as were his lips,
and Uncle Fetman shrieked:
'Stop-stop the music! Stop the musc!'
He rushed forward, hand IN air But the
wild, crashing, crying measures of the finale
held every player with head bent to his in
strument, hair flying, lips parted, and-tncle
Feltman only in time to the face OF
Ivan kremloff from striking against the floor
as the old man toppled and fell.
THERE was nothing afterward that the
friend could do beyond performing the
decent office of closing dead mans eyes;
the while a little whose bow and violin
shook in his trembling, fine, feminine hands,
looked fearsomely with big, black eyes the
sight. Psychologists, | know, account for the
pleasant expression our lips so often wear
when we die, by declaring it to be caused by
certain muscular COntraCtiOnS. However that
may be, in death Father Ivan was smiling
EPIGRAMS