Late hours and early were kept; and one night, Dick, who adhered to his
routine and never appeared to his guests before midday, made a night of
it at poker in the stag-room. Graham had sat in, and felt well repaid
when, at dawn, the players received an unexpected visit from
Paula--herself past one of her white nights, she said, although no sign
of it showed on her fresh skin and color. Graham had to struggle to
keep his eyes from straying too frequently to her as she mixed golden
fizzes to rejuvenate the wan-eyed, jaded players. Then she made them
start the round of "jacks" that closed the game, and sent them off for
a cold swim before breakfast and the day's work or frolic.
Never was Paula alone. Graham could only join in the groups that were
always about her. Although the young people ragged and tangoed
incessantly, she rarely danced, and then it was with the young men.
Once, however, she favored him with an old-fashioned waltz. "Your
ancestors in an antediluvian dance," she mocked the young people, as
she stepped out; for she and Graham had the floor to themselves.
Once down the length of the room, the two were in full accord. Paula,
with the sympathy Graham recognized that made her the exceptional
accompanist or rider, subdued herself to the masterful art of the man,
until the two were as parts of a sentient machine that operated without
jar or friction. After several minutes, finding their perfect mutual
step and pace, and Graham feeling the absolute giving of Paula to the
dance, they essayed rhythmical pauses and dips, their feet never
leaving the floor, yet affecting the onlookers in the way Dick voiced
it when he cried out: "They float! They float!" The music was the
"Waltz of Salomé," and with its slow-fading end they postured slower
and slower to a perfect close.
There was no need to speak. In silence, without a glance at each other,
they returned to the company where Dick was proclaiming:
"Well, younglings, codlings, and other fry, that's the way we old folks
used to dance. I'm not saying anything against the new dances, mind
you. They're all right and dandy fine. But just the same it wouldn't
injure you much to learn to waltz properly. The way you waltz, when you
do attempt it, is a scream. We old folks do know a thing or two that is
worth while."
"For instance?" queried one of the girls.
"I'll tell you. I don't mind the young generation smelling of gasoline
the way it does--"
Cries and protests drowned Dick out for a moment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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