y round heard of my being home again; and
thinking that I must have learned a vast deal overseas, they were set on
having me here and there to fiddle for them. At first I thought no, I
could not; there seemed to be only one tune my fiddle would ever play
again, and that no dancing tune. But with using common sense, and some
talk with Father L'Homme-Dieu, this foolishness passed away, and it
seemed the best thing I could do, being in sadness myself, was to give
what little cheer I could to others. So I went, and the first time was
the worst, and I saw at once here was a thing I could do, and do, it
might be, better than another. For being with the marquis, Melody, and
seeing how high folks moved, and spoke, and held themselves, it was
borne in upon me that I had special fitness for a task that might well
be connected with the pleasure of youth in dancing. Dancing, as I have
pointed out to you many times, may be considered in two ways: first, as
the mere fling of high spirits, young animals skipping and leaping, as
kids in a meadow, and with no thought save to leap the highest, and
prance the furthest; but second, and more truly, I must think, to show
to advantage the grace (if any) and perfection of the human body, which
we take to be the work of a divine hand, and the beauty of motion in
accord with music. And whereas I have heard dancing condemned as
unmanly, and fit only for women and young boys, I must still take the
other hand, and think there is no finer sight than a well-proportioned
man, with a sense of his powers, and a desire to do justice to them,
moving through the figures of a contra-dance. But this is my hobby, my
dear, and I may have wearied you with it before now.

I undertook, then, as my trade allowed it,--and indeed, in time the
bench came to hold only the second place in the arrangement of my
days,--to give instruction in dancing and deportment, to such as desired
to improve themselves in these respects. The young people in the
villages of that district were honest, and not lacking in wits; but
they were uncouth to a degree that seemed to me, coming as I did from
the home of all grace and charm, a thing horrible, and not to be
endured. They were my neighbours; I was bound, or so it seemed to me, to
help them to a right understanding of the mercies of a bountiful
Providence, and to prevent the abuse of these mercies by cowish gambols.
I let it be understood wherever I went that whoever would study under