wn by this light. Lots of
strangers are here."

She did as he suggested; and the act was a tacit acknowledgment that
she accepted his offer.

Wildeve gave her his arm and took her down on the outside of the ring
to the bottom of the dance, which they entered. In two minutes more
they were involved in the figure and began working their way upwards
to the top. Till they had advanced halfway thither Eustacia wished
more than once that she had not yielded to his request; from the
middle to the top she felt that, since she had come out to seek
pleasure, she was only doing a natural thing to obtain it. Fairly
launched into the ceaseless glides and whirls which their new position
as top couple opened up to them, Eustacia's pulses began to move too
quickly for long rumination of any kind.

Through the length of five-and-twenty couples they threaded their
giddy way, and a new vitality entered her form. The pale ray of
evening lent a fascination to the experience. There is a certain
degree and tone of light which tends to disturb the equilibrium of
the senses, and to promote dangerously the tenderer moods; added to
movement, it drives the emotions to rankness, the reason becoming
sleepy and unperceiving in inverse proportion; and this light fell now
upon these two from the disc of the moon. All the dancing girls felt
the symptoms, but Eustacia most of all. The grass under their feet
became trodden away, and the hard beaten surface of the sod, when
viewed aslant towards the moonlight, shone like a polished table.
The air became quite still, the flag above the waggon which held the
musicians clung to the pole, and the players appeared only in outline
against the sky; except when the circular mouths of the trombone,
ophicleide, and French horn gleamed out like huge eyes from the shade
of their figures. The pretty dresses of the maids lost their subtler
day colours and showed more or less of a misty white. Eustacia floated
round and round on Wildeve's arm, her face rapt and statuesque; her
soul had passed away from and forgotten her features, which were left
empty and quiescent, as they always are when feeling goes beyond their
register.

How near she was to Wildeve! it was terrible to think of. She could
feel his breathing, and he, of course, could feel hers. How badly
she had treated him! yet, here they were treading one measure. The
enchantment of the dance surprised her. A clear line of difference
divided like a tangible fe