Another interesting point to note is that until the advent of Camargo the ballet skirts reached nearly, or quite, to the ankles. She was the first to shorten it, not, of course, to the brevity one can only regret has been too often seen since, but to such degree as to enable the steps to be better seen and the dancer to have greater freedom of movement. Her favourite dances were the _Tambourin_, _Gavotte_, and _Rigaudon_, or _Rigadoon_, as it is known in English. But for all the shortening of the skirt and the rapidity of her steps, Marie-Anne was never accused from departing from modesty, grace, and refinement of deportment. A curious personal characteristic was, that while on the stage she was the incarnation of gaiety, yet in private life she was for the most part strangely grave, and even sad; though, with all the advantages of talent, position, and wealth of which she was possessed, it might have been expected she should be quite otherwise. No one ever discovered the reason. One imagines it to have been that modern disease, “the artistic temperament,” and a steady perception of the pitiful fact that all stage triumphs are but transient; and that, popular as she might be, and was, on her retirement in 1751, her fame would not long endure after her death, which actually occurred in 1770. Yet to-day she lives for us in Lancret’s exquisite picture, for all to see who visit Hertford House. CAMARGO SPEAKS “Talk to me not of poor Prévôt, With all her peevish airs and graces; Her day is past! ’Tis sad, I know, But then--we cannot _all_ be aces! ’Tis time she learned her proper place is A little lower in the pack; For all in favour now _my_ pace is: Of Rigaudons I have the knack. “Though some still like a vogue that’s slow, Formal, and stiff, the present craze is All for the dance that has some ‘go;’ And Minuet enjoys all praises. But yet my dance the more amazes, And none can follow on my ‘track,’ As step with swift step interlaces. Of Rigaudons I _have_ the knack. “When in my aerial flight I go, High leaping, see the people’s faces! How round their eyes begin to grow, And what a shout each one upraises! Perchance some jealous girl grimaces. But what of that! when, smiling back, I see the one thing _she_ betrays is-- Of Rigaudons _I_ have the knack! ENVOI “_But oh! one fear my soul abases._ _Time will some day my fair limbs rack!_ _Who then will reck that now the phrase is--_ _‘Of Rigaudons I have the knack’?_” CHAPTER XIX THE HOUSE OF VESTRIS