_Now_ Eddie _if you’ll_ teach _us_ _A_ new _game to_ play, _We’ll_ watch _you and_ try _to_ _Do_ just _as you_ say! There was a slight poetic exaggeration in the idea of Eddy Brown’s being able to teach anybody anything new, but this was felt by no one but the youngest assistant, who, recalling his regular programme upon such occasions, smiled somewhat sardonically. [Illustration: “’_Tripping lightly as we go._’”] As she had expected, Eddy inclined to play “Tripping lightly as we go.” His conception of the process implied in the song was a laborious jumping up on one toe and down on the other. This exercise he would keep up till the crack of doom if undiverted from it. When induced to stop, he signalled to Joseph Zukoffsky to take his place. Joseph, on being tunefully implored to produce something new in the way of a game, declared for “Did you ever see a laddie?” and the ring started in blithely: _Did you_ ever _see a_ laddie, _a_ laddie, _a_ laddie; _Did you_ ever _see a_ laddie, _do_ this _way or_ that? After some seconds of consideration Joseph solemnly lifted his left heel from the floor and replaced it. This enthralling diversion occupied the ring for a moment, and then Marantha was summoned. Though plump as a partridge, Marantha was born for the ballet. “Did you _ever_ see a _lassie_, a _lassie_, a _lassie_,” sang the children as Marantha, arching her little instep and pointing her toe deliciously, kicked out to one side, almost as high as her waist, with a rhythmical precision good to see. [Illustration: “_Marantha was born for the ballet_.”] Her eyes sought Philip’s, and with a coy little smile, she took his hand to lead him to the centre. Too many poets and novelists have analyzed the inevitable longing of woman to allure him who scorns her charms, the pathetic passion to attract where she has been brutally repulsed, to make it necessary for me to discuss her attempted endearments as Philip sulkily flung away her hand. Just then somebody wanted a drink; and as one teacher led the thirsty child away, and the other turned her head to attract the pianist’s attention and propose a new tune, Philip, who had not begun to set his model till the last moment, suddenly lifted his thumb to his nose, contracting and expanding his fingers in strict time. Her rapid glance had shown the teacher a ring of children apparently tapping their noses, and only a horrified snort from Mrs. R. B. M. Smith and a murmured “_Heavens!_” from the returning assistant called her attention to the circle of children gravely assuming an attitude prescribed nowhere in Fröbel, nor, indeed, in any system, social or Delsartean.