, if not absolutely sinful;
but Gaspard Vaillant was firm on this point.

"Dancing is a stately and graceful exercise," he said, "and like
the use of arms, it greatly improves the carriage and poise of the
figure. Queen Elizabeth loves dancing, and none can say that she is
not a good Protestant. Every youth should be taught to dance, if
only he may know how to walk. I am not one of those who think that,
because a man is a good Christian, he should necessarily be awkward
and ungainly in speech and manner, adverse to innocent gaieties,
narrow in his ideas, ill dressed and ill mannered, as I see are
many of those most extreme in religious matters, in this country."

Upon the other hand, in the school playground, under the shadow of
the grand cathedral, Phil was as English as any; being foremost in
their rough sports, and ready for any fun or mischief.

He fought many battles, principally because the difference of his
manner from that of the others often caused him to be called
"Frenchy." The epithet in itself was not displeasing to him; for he
was passionately attached to his mother, and had learned from her
to love her native country; but applied in derision it was regarded
by him as an insult, and many a tough battle did he fight, until
his prowess was so generally acknowledged that the name, though
still used, was no longer one of disrespect.

In figure, he took after his French rather than his English
ancestors. Of more than average height for his age, he was
apparently slighter in build than his schoolfellows. It was not
that he lacked width of chest, but that his bones were smaller and
his frame less heavy. The English boys, among themselves, sometimes
spoke of him as "skinny," a word considered specially appropriate
to Frenchmen; but though he lacked their roundness and fulness of
limb, and had not an ounce of superfluous flesh about him, he was
all sinew and wire; and while in sheer strength he was fully their
equal, he was incomparably quicker and more active.

Although in figure and carriage he took after his mother's
countrymen, his features and expression were wholly English. His
hair was light brown, his eyes a bluish gray, his complexion fair,
and his mouth and eyes alive with fun and merriment. This, however,
seldom found vent in laughter. His intercourse with the grave
Huguenots, saddened by their exile, and quiet and restrained in
manner, taught him to repress mirth, which would have appeared to
the