ok fire and
transfigured the dancers. The Temperleys seemed to be fashioned of
different clay; they were able to keep their heads. Several elderly
people had joined in the dance, performing their steps with a
conscientious dexterity that put some of their juniors to shame. Mr.
Fullerton stood by, looking on and applauding.

"How your father seems to enjoy the sight!" said Temperley, as he met
his partner for a moment.

"He likes nothing so well, and his daughters take after him."

Hadria's reels were celebrated, not without reason. Some mad spirit
seemed to possess her. It would appear almost as if she had passed into
a different phase of character. She lost caution and care and the sense
of external events.

When the dance was ended, Hubert led her from the hall. She went as if
in a dream. She would not allow herself to be taken beyond the sound of
the grotesque old dance music that was still going on, but otherwise she
was unresisting.

He sat down beside her in a corner of the dining-room. Now and then he
glanced at his companion, and seemed about to speak. "You seem fond of
your national music," he at last remarked.

"It fills me with bewildering memories," she said in a dreamy tone. "It
seems to recall--it eludes description--some wild, primitive
experiences--mountains, mists--I can't express what northern mysteries.
It seems almost as if I had lived before, among some ancient Celtic
people, and now, when I hear their music--or sometimes when I hear the
sound of wind among the pines--whiffs and gusts of something intensely
familiar return to me, and I cannot grasp it. It is very bewildering."

"The only thing that happens to me of the kind is that curious sense of
having done a thing before. Strange to say, I feel it now. This moment
is not new to me."

Hadria gave a startled glance at her companion, and shuddered.

"I suppose it is all pre-ordained," she said. He was puzzled, but more
hopeful than usual. Hadria might almost have accepted him in sheer
absence of mind. He put the thought in different terms. He began to
speak more boldly. He gave his view of life and happiness, his
philosophy and religion. Hadria lazily agreed. She lay under a singular
spell. The bizarre old music smote still upon the ear. She felt as if
she were in the thrall of some dream whose events followed one another,
as the scenes of a moving panorama unfold themselves before the
spectators. Temperley began to plead his cause. Hadr