ire fence plucked;
but almost anything would serve.

So Prue and Orton hastened away to the party, and danced with the final
rapture of doing the forbidden thing under an overhanging cloud of
menace. Several more pupils enlisted themselves in Prue's classes.
Another problem was solved and a new danger commenced by Mr. Norman
Maugans.

The question of music had become serious. It was hard to make progress
when the dancers had to hum their own tunes. Prue could not buy a
phonograph, and the Prosser piano dated from a time when pianos did not
play themselves. Prue could "tear off a few rags," as she put it, but
she could not dance and teach and play her own music all at once. Mrs.
Hippisley was afraid to lend her phonograph lest the judge should notice
its absence.

And now like a sent angel came Mr. Norman Maugans, who played the
pipe-organ at the church, and offered to exchange his services as
musician for occasional lessons and the privilege of watching Prue
dance, for which privilege, he said, "folks in New York would pay a
hundred dollars a night if they knew what they was missin'."

Prue grabbed the bargain, and the next morning began to teach him to
play such things as "Some Smoke" and "Leg of Mutton."

At first he played "Girls, Run Along" so that it could hardly be told
from "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-night?" and his waltzes were mostly
hesitation; but by and by he got so that he fairly tangoed on the
pedals, and he was so funny bouncing about on the piano-stool to
"Something Seems Tingle-ingle-ingle-ingling So Queer" that the pupils
stopped dancing to watch him.

The tango was upon the world like a Mississippi at flood-time. The
levees were going over one by one; or if they stood fast they stood
alone, for the water crept round from above and backed up from below.

In Carthage, as in both Portlands, Maine and Oregon, and the two Cairos,
Illinois and Egypt, the Parises of Kentucky and France, the Yorks and
Londons, old and new; in Germany, Italy, and Japan, fathers, monarchs,
mayors, editors stormed against the new dance; societies passed
resolutions; police interfered; ballet-girls declared the dances immoral
and ungraceful. The army of the dance went right on growing.

Doctor Brearley called a meeting of the chief men of his congregation to
talk things over and discipline, if not expel, all guilty members.
Deacon Luxton was in a state of mind. He dared not vote in favor of the
dance and he dared not