_"Sur le pont d'Avignon, Tout le monde y danse en rond."_ She frees her hands and courtesies to one gentleman and the other. _"Les belles dames font comme ca; Les beaux messieurs font comme ca."_ Then she catches hands with them again, and they circle round the table as before, singing, "_Sur le pont d'Avignon, Tout le monde y danse en rond._ Oh, dear! Stop! I'm dizzy--I shall fall." She spins into a chair, while the men continue solemnly circling by themselves. Campbell: "It is a sacred dance: _"Sur le pont d'Avignon--"_ Welling: "It's an expiation: _"Tout le monde y danse en rond."_ Mrs. Campbell, springing from her chair and running to the window: "Stop, you crazy things! Here comes Jane! Come right in here, Jane! Did you get it? Give it to me, Jane!" Welling: "_I_ think it belongs to me, Mrs. Campbell." Campbell: "Jane, I am master of the house--nominally. Give me the letter." VI _JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL_ Jane, entering, blown and panting, through the open window: "Oh, how I did run--" Mrs. Campbell: "Yes, yes! But the letter--" Welling: "Did you get it?" Campbell: "Where is it?" Jane, fanning herself with her apron: "I can't hardly get my breath--" Mrs. Campbell: "Had she got back?" Jane: "No, ma'am." Campbell: "Did Mrs. Rice object to giving it up?" Jane: "No, sir." Welling: "Then it's all right?" Jane: "No, sir. All wrong." Welling: "All wrong?" Campbell: "How all wrong?" Mrs. Campbell: "What's all wrong, Jane?" Jane: "Please, ma'am, may I have a drink of water? I'm so dry I can't speak." Mrs. Campbell: "Yes, certainly." Campbell: "Of course." Welling: "Here." They all pour glasses of water and press them to her lips. Jane, pushing the glasses away, and escaping from the room: "They thought Mrs. Campbell was in a great hurry for Miss Rice to have the letter, and they sent off the man with it to meet her." VII _MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL_ Mrs. Campbell: "Oh, merciful goodness!" Welling: "Gracious powers!" Campbell: "Another overruling providence. Now you _are_ in for it, my boy! So is Amy. And so am I--which is still more to the point." Mrs. Campbell: "Well, now, what shall we do?" Campbell: "All that we can do now is to await developments: they'll come fast enough. Miss Rice will open her letter as soon as she gets it, and she won't understand it in the least; how _could_ she understand a letter in your handwriting, with Welling's name signed to it? She'll show it to Miss Greenway--" Welling: "Oh, don't say that!" Campbell: "--Greenway; and Miss Greenway won't know what to make of it either. But she's the kind of girl who'll form some lively conjectures when she reads that letter. In the first place, she'll wonder how Mr. Welling happens to be writing to Miss Rice in that affectionate strain--" Mrs. Campbell, in an appealing shriek: "Willis!"