The deportment of the dancers, too, was in perfect good keeping. Not a _gaucherie_ did I witness, throughout the evening. With one thing I was struck: and that was, the attention, the seriousness, the almost solemnity, with which the whole party applied themselves to the important business of dancing. Dancing, if it be, among the higher classes of France, an amusement, with the rural population is a passion: and, in a nation so volatile, the earnest gravity of their village _assemblées_ is the more observable. Of the three violins, one, I soon perceived, had the chief authority. With a voice of command, he directed the various movements, indicated changes of figure, regulated the whole proceedings. In fact, he was not only, as it turned out, leader of the orchestra, but dancing-master to the village--"_Vir gregis ipse_ CAPER:" and, had he been Grand Turk, he could not have issued his mandates in a more imperious tone, or to more obedient subjects.--Never go to France again, without attending a village dance at a _guinguette_. If you have not seen that, you have not seen one most interesting phase of Gallic character. Among the belles of the evening, there was one, you rogue! taller than the rest, that both attracted my attention, and fixed it. She not only danced well--they all did that--she danced with an air. Nay, shall I tell the whole truth? She bore a resemblance, or at least I fancied so, to the admired of all eyes, the lovely Juno, with whom I had crossed the Bay of Biscay. Near me danced a lusty Adonis of five-and-forty, who was decidedly the best male performer of the party. I had already made two or three acquaintances; and, as he swept by me in the whirl of his evolutions, I could not help saying, "You dance well, Monsieur." He, with the honest, open-hearted vanity of a Frenchman and a Gascon, danced with redoubled energy, to confirm my good opinion. Presently the set concluded; and the next moment he was at my side in a high state of exhilaration, mopping and breathless. "_Eh bien! Monsieur_--Our dancing--what do you think of it?" "Excellent. The ladies dance admirably. Of the male performers, truth compels me to avow that you are incomparably the best." "You dance?" "Might a stranger presume--?" "Ah, Monsieur, but what an honour to our ball! Hold! I shall find you a _vis-à-vis_." "Might one select?" "She's yours for the evening! Name her! I fly!" "Her with the blue sash, large eyes, rather tall--" "Ah! my cousin! Wait a little moment! 'Tis done!" The violins struck up; again the sets were formed; with the partner of my choice, I stood up for a _cotillon_. Had danced the same figures in England; so got on tolerably well.