William, however, was very gladly accepted later in the evening, when George, on being noticed by the other ladies, who admired his graceful manners and fine appearance, neglected Betty for them, after the manner of very young gentlemen. The first dance was a _minuet de la cour_, the most graceful and dignified of all dances. Mrs. Washington, dancing with Admiral Vernon, took the head of the room, and motioned George and Betty to take the place opposite her. The minuet was formed, the fiddlers gave an extra flourish, and the dance began, with every lady courtesying to the ground and spreading her fan, while the gentlemen bowed so low that they swept the floor with their cocked hats. Among them all no couple were more graceful and dignified than the boy and girl. Betty danced with the utmost gravity, making her “bow, slip, slide, and pirouette” in the most daintily careful manner. George’s noble figure and perfect grace were well adapted to this charming dance, and many compliments were paid both of them, which made Betty smile delightedly and George turn red with pleasure. When the stately minuet was over the fiddlers struck into Betty’s favorite, the “Marquis of Huntley’s Rigadoon,” which was as jolly and harum-scarum as the minuet was serious and dignified. Betty in her heart liked the rigadoon best, and whispered to George that “William was good enough for the rigadoon.” William therefore came forward, and the two had a wild romp to the music of two energetic fiddlers. George was rather shy about asking the ladies, all of whom were older than he, to dance; but having made the plunge, he was accepted, and afterwards poor Betty had no one to depend upon but William Fairfax, who was equally ill off for partners. No one was gayer or more gallant than the gray-haired Admiral Vernon, and the veteran sailor and the boy George divided between them the honors of the evening. The dance stopped early, as the next day was Christmas, and they were sure to be roused betimes; and, besides, there was to be a grand ball for all the gentry round about on Christmas night. When George went up to his room he was very well inclined for bed from his day’s travel and his evening’s amusement, and Billy was snoozing comfortably before the fire, with Rattler asleep within reach. Before George slept, however, he wrote two letters--one to his mother and another to Lord Fairfax. Mount Vernon and its gayety, and the new faces he had met, had not put out of his mind the two persons so loved and admired by him. But as soon as his letters were written he tumbled into bed, and was asleep in less time than it takes to tell it. CHAPTER X It seemed to George that he had not been in bed an hour before he heard, in the gray glimmer of dawn, Billy’s voice, crying: