第42章 A Revelation.(3)

"Hollo!"cried that gentleman,looking around with a great show of savagery,as the little girl pulled the skirt of his coat to attract his attention;"where's King Herod?""We wish to try another method with the children,"answered Miss Burton."Will it please you therefore graciously to read the petition.All in the parlor have assented.""My goodness gracious---"

"No swearing,sir,if you please."

"Woman has been too many for man ever since she got him into trouble by eating green apples,"ejaculated Mr.Burleigh with a despairing gesture."Why do you mock me with petitions?THERE is the power behind the throne,"pointing to Miss Burton.

"Take your places,small ladies and gentlemen,"she cried."That's Mr.Burleigh's way of saying yes.While you are forming,I'll play a few bars to give you the time."Did she bewitch the piano that it responded so wonderfully to her touch?Where had she found such quaint,dainty music,simple as the old-fashioned dance itself,so that the little ones could keep time to it,and yet pleasing Van Berg's fastidious ear with its unhackneyed and refined melody.But the marked and marvellous feature in her playing was an airy rolicksomeness that was as irresistible as a panic.Old ladies'heads began to bob over their fancy work most absurdly.Two quartets of elderly gentlemen at whist were evidently beginning to play badly,their feet meantime tapping the floor in a most unwonted manner.

"Were I as dead as Julius Caesar I could not resist that quickstep,"cried Stanton;and he rushed over to his aunt,Mrs.Mayhew,and dragged her into line.

"What in the name of all the witches of Salem has got into that piano!"cried Mr.Burleigh,bursting into the parlor from the office,with his pen stuck behind his ear,and his hair brushed up perpendicularly."There's sorcery in the air.I'm practised upon--Keep still?No,not if I was nailed up in one of the soldier's 'wooden overcoats.'The world is transformed,transfigured,transmogrified,and 'things are not what they seem!'Here's a blooming girl who'll dance with me,"and he seized the hand of a white-haired old lady who yielded to the contagion so far as to take a place in the line beside her granddaughter.

Indeed,in a few moments,all who had been familiar with the pastime in their youth,caught the joyous infection,and lengthened out the lines,each new accession being greeted with shouts and laughter.

The scene approached in character that described by Hawthorne as occurring in the grounds of the Villa Borghese when Donatello,with a simple "tambourine,"produced music of such "indescribably potency"that sallow,haggard,half-starved peasants,French soldiers,scarlet-costumed contadinas,Swiss guards,German artists,English lords,and herdsmen from the Campagna,all "joined hands in the dance"which the musician himself led with the frisky,frolicsome step of the mythical faun.