"I am engaged, monsieur."

Cherami thereupon addressed the same request to one after another, varying his phrase slightly; but there was no variation in the replies; it was always the same formula:

"I am engaged."

For no young woman, married or unmarried, cared to dance with a person so red of face, so shabbily dressed, smelling so strongly of rum, and with his right hand always behind his back.

"Sapristi! it seems that all the ladies have been engaged beforehand!"

cried Cherami, glaring at the benches in turn; "I am refused all along the line!"

But at every ball there is sure to be some elderly woman, ugly, dowdily dressed, who still has the a.s.surance to take her place among the dancers. Our Arthur finally espied a lady of that type, sitting in a corner; on her head was a sort of turban, laden with an appalling ma.s.s of flowers, feathers, and lace.

"I shall be unlucky indeed, if this creature is engaged!" said Cherami to himself, boldly directing his steps toward the turbaned dame.

He had not delivered half of his invitation, when she rose as if impelled by a spring, and seized his gloved hand, saying:

"With pleasure; yes, monsieur; I accept. Oh! I will dance as long as you please."

"In that case, fair lady, let us take our places."

Almost all the sets were full. But Cherami was not to be denied; he planted himself in front of a short youth and his partner; and when the youth remonstrated: "But, monsieur, this place is taken, we were here before you," he replied, in a supercilious tone: "I don't know whether you were before us, my good man; but I do know that I have the honor to be here now with madame, and that I will not stir except at the point of the bayonet!"

The young man dared not make any further resistance; moreover, the guests were whispering to one another on all sides:

"That original is dancing with Aunt Merlin!"

"What! Aunt Merlin dancing?"

"Yes, with the man in Scotch trousers. This is going to be great fun!"

And all those who were not dancing ran to watch the set in which Cherami and Aunt Merlin were to figure.

"Sapristi! I have lost one of my gloves!" cried Arthur, making a pretence of feeling in his pocket, and looking on the floor. "Will you pardon me, fair lady, for dancing with a single glove?"

"Oh! certainly, monsieur," replied the lady with the turban, in a simpering tone; "you are forgiven; indeed, the same thing happened to Monsieur Courbichon; when he arrived here for the ball, he discovered that he had lost one of his gloves--only it was the left one, in his case."

"Ah! that's very amusing! Then we have the pair between us! I shall laugh a long while over that. It's our turn, fair lady."

The first figure pa.s.sed off quietly enough, as the English chain and the cat's tail gave Cherami no chance to display his talent; but in the second, in the _avant-deux_, he began to take steps and att.i.tudes of the cancan in its purest and most unblushing form. The men laughed till they cried, and the women as well, murmuring:

"Why, this is frightful! where does that fellow think he is, for heaven's sake?"

The most amusing feature of the episode was that Cherami's partner, spurred on by the strange evolutions and the eccentric steps of her cavalier, thought that she ought to do as he did, and began to twist and turn, and throw her legs to right and left, with an ardor which kept all the flowers on her turban in commotion.

The laughter became more uproarious.

"I venture to believe that we are producing some effect," said Cherami to his partner; "but I am not surprised; whenever I dance, the people crowd to watch me."

Meanwhile, from one end of the room to the other, the guests were saying:

"The man in the plaid trousers is dancing the cancan with Aunt Merlin; it's most amusing!"

Some of the couples ceased dancing, in order to watch the performance of Aunt Merlin and her partner. The uproar soon reached the ears of Monsieur Blanquette, the uncle; the bride's mother, a most respectable woman, said to him:

"I beg you, Monsieur Blanquette, go and tell my sister not to dance the cancan. Everybody here is laughing at her, and she doesn't notice it.

Oh! what a mistake you made in inviting that tall man with the red face!"

"Mon Dieu! madame, I a.s.sure you that I didn't invite him. He's a man who owes me money--whom I knew when he was rich and well-dressed.--He has ruined himself completely. He caught sight of me this morning, when we were getting out of the carriages; and to-night he takes the liberty of coming to our ball. I didn't dare tell him to leave--because, you understand, that's an embarra.s.sing thing to do. But if he presumes to dance indecently--why, then I shan't hesitate."

Monsieur Blanquette walked toward the quadrille which caused such a prodigious sensation. Cherami was in the act of executing the _chaloupe_ with his partner, who continued to second him as best she could. The bridegroom's uncle sidled up behind her, and said in an undertone:

"Don't dance like that, Madame Merlin, I beg you; that's the way they dance at low dance-halls. Decent people don't make such exhibitions of themselves in a salon."

"It seems to me that I am dancing very well, monsieur," replied Aunt Merlin, sourly; "and the way the people crowd to watch us proves it."

"I a.s.sure you, Madame Merlin, that it isn't proper, and your sister is much annoyed."

"My sister's annoyed because she's got beyond dancing. Let her leave me alone! I propose to dance, I tell you!"

"What is it, my nymph, eh?" cried Cherami; "what did old Pere Blanquette say to you?"

"He declares that our dance isn't proper."

"Ah! that's very fine! What box has he just come out of, to be shocked at our dance? Doesn't he go to the play, I wonder? Hasn't he ever seen the Spanish dancers? They've been at almost all the theatres. Ah! bigre!

if he'd seen those females do their _fandangos_, their _iotas_, and their _boleros_, and indulge in all sorts of antics, showing their legs, yes, and their garters too! that's much worse than the cancan. But that doesn't prevent those Spaniards from drawing the crowd, wherever they are. And you don't like it, because I dance the cancan, and yet you rush to see licentious dances performed by women whose costumes add to the effect of their dancing! Sapristi! for G.o.d's sake, try to make up your mind what you want!--Our turn, my Terpsich.o.r.e; attention! this is the _pastourelle_, and I am saving a little surprise for you in the _cavalier seul._"

Aunt Merlin darted off like an arrow, paying no heed to the remonstrances of Pere Blanquette, who heaved sigh upon sigh when he saw how easy it is to lead a woman on to make a fool of herself, even when her age should make her sensible. But the time came for Cherami to perform the _cavalier seul_; excited by all that he had drunk, and recalling the feats of his younger days, he performed the evolution called the _araignee_, which consists in throwing yourself flat on your stomach in front of the opposite couple. This bit of gymnastics was greeted with frantic laughter; and Aunt Merlin, turning to Papa Blanquette, cried:

"What do you say to that? Could you do as much?"

"No, certainly not, madame; and I wouldn't try," retorted the uncle; "but I consider it very presumptuous. Your partner must have the devil in him, to do such crazy things!"

Aunt Merlin had ceased to listen; the last figure had arrived, that in which the galop is the leading feature; and said Cherami, as he put his arm about her waist:

"We'll just show the others how to galop. Fichtre! they'd better look out for themselves. They ran into me when they were waltzing, but we'll pay them back in their own coin."

With that, he started off with his partner, whirling her about as they danced. Beau Arthur had been one of the most notable performers in the formidable galops which are a feature of the masked b.a.l.l.s at the Opera.

The punch renewed the vigor of his youth. Throwing himself headlong into the midst of the a.s.semblage, dancers and onlookers, he rushed through the room like a whirlwind or an avalanche, hurling this one aside, colliding with that one, and sowing confusion everywhere. In vain did they shout to him:

"Stop, monsieur; stop at once! you're throwing the ladies down!"

Cherami kept on; not until Aunt Merlin's turban fell, would he consent to deposit her upon a bench, with her eyes starting from her head. But at that moment several gentlemen, boiling over with wrath, surrounded the terrible galoper.

"Monsieur, you threw my partner down!"

"Monsieur, you have crushed my daughter's nose!"

"Monsieur, you upset my wife; when she fell, her elastic skirt sprang up over her head, so that everybody could see--what I alone have the right to see!"