Capriol expresses his admiration for the law as a necessary institution, but complains that his neglect of the polite arts, while in the company of the Orleans law-students, has made him dull and wooden. He says that his knowledge of fencing and tennis makes him an acceptable companion with other youths, but he fails as a dancer to please the _demoiselles_, a point on which, it seems to him, depends the whole reputation of a young man who contemplates marriage. Then follows some sound advice, with curious details, from Arbeau, on the advantages of dancing as a matrimonial agent, and he acclaims the art as one necessary to social welfare. Capriol agrees and expresses his disgust that the dance should have been so subject to bitter attacks, of which he quotes historic instances. Arbeau neatly responds that, “For one who has blamed, an infinity have esteemed and praised the art,” also following with quoted examples, saying, indeed, that “_Le S. prophete royal dauid dāça au deuāt de l’arche de Dieu_,” or, in other words, that “the holy prophet, King David, danced before the Ark of God.” In the course of their conversation, Arbeau makes learned references to the derivation of the word “Dance,” mentioning others then in use that were allied to it, such as _saulter_ (from the Latin _saltare_), _caroler_ (hence our “carols,” or songs which, originally, accompanied certain religious dances), _baler_, and _trepiner_, Capriol remembers that the ancients had three kinds of dances: the sedate _Emmeleia_, the gay _Kordax_, and the mixed _Sikinnis_, the first of which Arbeau likens (quite unhistorically) to the _pavanes_ and _basse-dance_ of his own period; the second, to the _gaillardes_, _voltas_, _corantos_, _gavottes_ (note that--a reference to the _gavotte_ in 1588!) and _branles_ (or, as Elizabethan Englishmen called them, “brawls”); while the third, he declares, must have been similar to the _branles doubles_ and to “the dance which we call _bouffons_ or _matachins_.” Then, very wisely, he points out that most objections to dancing have been provoked not by decent but by--objectionable dancing! And as Capriol hastily assures his austere but kindly teacher that he wants none of _that_ sort, but that he is anxious to teach his twelve-year-old sister what Arbeau is good enough to teach him, the old man proceeds on most polite and methodical lines. Arbeau, truly remarking that rhythm is the basis of the dance, as it was always of all military marching and evolutions, then goes on to give a wonderful disquisition on that glorious instrument, the drum, and a masterly analysis of its rhythmic possibilities, both as an inspirer of soldiers on the march and as a stimulus to the dance.