ections of continental
travel, perhaps the most fascinating of all kinds of "shop." Of course,
if the partners are old friends, or even tolerably familiar
acquaintances, the surface-fishing process is happily unnecessary, and
they can plunge at once into deep waters. Still, even if they get upon
so-called tender subjects, it's long odds they won't have time enough to
get out of their depth. That danger is reserved for the quieter and more
prolonged intercourse of picnic-parties and country-house life. Cupid's
arrows seldom penetrate deep at a ball.

A careful observer of ball-room talk will not fail to notice what may be
called the exclusive slang of society. He will find people "in society"
habitually using a few pet words which they love, not because they are a
bit better than the synonyms used by other people, but just because
other people don't use them, whereby they serve as a sort of passwords
or Masonic signs among the initiated. Just now plainness is all the
fashion. Ladies who are not in society talk of "dresses" and
"gentlemen," and grammatically contract "are not" into "aren't;" so the
ladies of the Upper Ten say "gowns" and "men" and "ain't" for
distinction's sake. And the same idea comes out at many points. The
public-ball cavaliers rejoice in lavender- or lemon-colored kids, and
display exuberant activity in the "squares;" so the dancing-man of
society punctiliously gloves his hands in white, and strolls through a
quadrille with an air of languid indifference. One romp, and one only,
does the private ball countenance in the merry-go-round of the third
figure of a "sixteen" (double) set of Lancers.

After every dance, in the early stage of the ball, there is a general
set of the dancers in the direction of the tea-room. Till some time
between midnight and one o'clock the door of the supper room is kept
strictly closed, and light refreshments--tea, iced coffee, cream- and
water-ices, various "cups" and lemonades and strawberryades, and cakes
and biscuits and such-like--have undisputed possession of the field.
Anything to get away for five minutes from the heated atmosphere of the
dancing-room; so it is generally advisable to propose "tea" to your
partner as an excuse for a visit to the back room down stairs (probably
Paterfamilias's study or the children's school-room on other days); and,
once there, you will ask instructions as to whether "tea" shall this
time take the form of "cup," or something-ade, or i