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There, in the parlour door, stood the stranger, with his coat off, his violin hugged close under his chin, his right arm making the bow fly over the strings, his black eyes sparkling, and his stockinged feet marking time to the tune. "DANSEZ! DANSEZ," he cried, "EN AVANT! Don' spik'. Don' res'! Ah'll goin' play de feedle fo' yo' jess moch yo' lak', eef yo' h'only DANSE!"
Poor Ted would have given anything to have known what was said to him, but, being utterly ignorant of French, shook his head and bowed with an air of profound respect, which piece of politeness caused his short and rather ill-fitting tail to stick straight up in the air for a moment, and drew roars of laughter from the company. "Dansez, dansez-vous," said the Frenchman, with more emphasis.
The master of the ceremonies was shouting out his commands in bastard French: "Tournez!" "À votre place!" "Prenez la donne!" "Dansez toutes!" Eyes were sparkling, cheeks were flushing, lips were parting as gay activity created warmth in bodies and hearts. Then would come the tarantella, with Gaspare spinning like a top and tripping like a Folly in a veritable madness of movement.
Delsarte, in the presence of genius, refused to sing "Il pleut, il pleut, Bergere," but condescended to declaim "La Cigalle ayant chante tout l'ete," and did it as he alone can do it. When he came to the end of the fable, "Eh bien, dansez maintenant," he gave such a tragic shake to his head that the voluminous folds of his cravat became loosened and hung limply over his bosom.
After this heat, Massa Aaron and myself were perambulating the ballroom, quite satisfied with our own prowess and I was churming to myself, "Voulez vous dansez, mademoiselle" "De tout mon coeur," said a buxom brown dame, about eighteen stone by the coffee mill in St James's Street.
A poor welcome she received, the would-be borrower! a welcome that has become proverbial, and her chief title to celebrity. The petty malice of the two short lines Vous chantiez! j'en suis bien aise, Eh bien, dansez maintenant! has done more to immortalise the insect than her skill as a musician. "You sang! I am very glad to hear it! Now you can dance!"
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