第13章 THE WAITING SUPPER(6)

'It must be a country dance,I suppose?Now,Miss Everard,do have pity upon me.I am supposed to lead off;but really I know no more about speeding the plough than a child just born!Would you take one of the villagers?--just to start them,my uncle says.Suppose you take that handsome young farmer over there--I don't know his name,but I dare say you do--and I'll come on with one of the dairyman's daughters as a second couple.'

Christine turned in the direction signified,and changed colour--though in the shade nobody noticed it,'Oh,yes--I know him,'she said coolly.'He is from near our own place--Mr.Nicholas Long.'

'That's capital--then you can easily make him stand as first couple with you.Now I must pick up mine.''I--I think I'll dance with you,Mr.Bellston,'she said with some trepidation.'Because,you see,'she explained eagerly,'I know the figure and you don't--so that I can help you;while Nicholas Long,Iknow,is familiar with the figure,and that will make two couples who know it--which is necessary,at least.'Bellston showed his gratification by one of his angry-pleasant flushes--he had hardly dared to ask for what she proffered freely;and having requested Nicholas to take the dairyman's daughter,led Christine to her place,Long promptly stepping up second with his charge.There were grim silent depths in Nic's character;a small deedy spark in his eye,as it caught Christine's,was all that showed his consciousness of her.Then the fiddlers began--the celebrated Mellstock fiddlers who,given free stripping,could play from sunset to dawn without turning a hair.The couples wheeled and swung,Nicholas taking Christine's hand in the course of business with the figure,when she waited for him to give it a little squeeze;but he did not.

Christine had the greatest difficulty in steering her partner through the maze,on account of his self-will,and when at last they reached the bottom of the long line,she was breathless with her hard labour..Resting here,she watched Nic and his lady;and,though she had decidedly cooled off in these later months,began to admire him anew.Nobody knew these dances like him,after all,or could do anything of this sort so well.His performance with the dairyman's daughter so won upon her,that when 'Speed the Plough'was over she contrived to speak to him.

'Nic,you are to dance with me next time.'

He said he would,and presently asked her in a formal public manner,lifting his hat gallantly.She showed a little backwardness,which he quite understood,and allowed him to lead her to the top,a row of enormous length appearing below them as if by magic as soon as they had taken their places.Truly the Squire was right when he said that they only wanted starting.

'What is it to be?'whispered Nicholas.

She turned to the band.'The Honeymoon,'she said.

And then they trod the delightful last-century measure of that name,which if it had been ever danced better,was never danced with more zest.The perfect responsiveness which their tender acquaintance threw into the motions of Nicholas and his partner lent to their gyrations the fine adjustment of two interacting parts of a single machine.The excitement of the movement carried Christine back to the time--the unreflecting passionate time,about two years before--when she and Nic had been incipient lovers only;and it made her forget the carking anxieties,the vision of social breakers ahead,that had begun to take the gilding off her position now.Nicholas,on his part,had never ceased to be a lover;no personal worries had as yet made him conscious of any staleness,flatness,or unprofitableness in his admiration of Christine.

'Not quite so wildly,Nic,'she whispered.'I don't object personally;but they'll notice us.How came you here?'

'I heard that you had driven over;and I set out--on purpose for this.'

'What--you have walked?'

'Yes.If I had waited for one of uncle's horses I should have been too late.''Five miles here and five back--ten miles on foot--merely to dance!''With you.What made you think of this old "Honeymoon"thing?''O!it came into my head when I saw you,as what would have been a reality with us if you had not been stupid about that licence,and had got it for a distant church.''Shall we try again?'

'No--I don't know.I'll think it over.'The villagers admired their grace and skill,as the dancers themselves perceived;but they did not know what accompanied that admiration in one spot,at least.

'People who wonder they can foot it so featly together should know what some others think,'a waterman was saying to his neighbour.

'Then their wonder would be less.'

His comrade asked for information.

'Well--really I hardly believe it--but 'tis said they be man and wife.Yes,sure--went to church and did the job a'most afore 'twas light one morning.But mind,not a word of this;for 'twould be the loss of a winter's work to me if I had spread such a report and it were not true.'

When the dance had ended she rejoined her own section of the company.

Her father and Mr.Bellston the elder had now come out from the house,and were smoking in the background.Presently she found that her father was at her elbow.

'Christine,don't dance too often with young Long--as a mere matter of prudence,I mean,as volk might think it odd,he being one of our own neighbouring farmers.I should not mention this to 'ee if he were an ordinary young fellow;but being superior to the rest it behoves you to be careful.'

'Exactly,papa,'said Christine.