Glorvina, unwearied, still continued to dance with unabated spirit, and even seemed governed by the general principle which actuates all the Irish dancers--of not giving way to any competitor in the exertion; for she actually outdanced her partner, who had been jigging with all his _strength_, while she had only been dancing with all her _soul_; and when he retreated, she dropped a simple curtsey (according to the laws of jig-dancing here) to another young rustic, whose seven league brogues finally prevailed, and Glorvina at last gave way, while he made a scrape to a rosy cheeked, barefooted damsel, who out jigged him and his two successors; and thus the chain went on. Glorvina, as she came panting and glowing towards me, exclaimed, “I have done my duty for the evening;” and threw herself on a seat, breathless and smiling. “Nay,” said I, “more than your duty; for you even performed a work of supererogation.” And I cast a pointed look at the young rustic who had been the object of her election. “O!” she replied, eagerly--“it is the custom here, and I should be sorry, for the indulgence of an overstrained delicacy, to violate any of those established rules to which, however trifling, they are devotedly attached. Besides, you perceive,” she added, smiling, “this condescension on the part of the females, who are thus ‘won unsought,’ does not render the men more presumptuous. You see what a distance the youth of both sexes preserve--a distance which always exists in these kind of public meetings.” And, in fact, the lads and lasses were ranged opposite to each other, with no other intercourse than what the communion of the eyes afforded, or the transient intimacy of the jig bestowed. * * This custom, so prevalent in some parts of Ireland, is of a very ancient origin. We read in Keating’s History of Ireland, that in the remotest periods, when the Irish brought their children to the fair of Tailtean, in order to dispose of them in marriage, the strictest order was observed; the men and women having distinct places assigned them at a certain distance from each other. “And will you not dance a jig?” asked Glorvina. “I seldom dance,” said I--“Ill health has for some time back coincided with my inclination, which seldom led me to try my skill at the _Poetry of motion?_” “Poetry of motion!” repeated Glorvina--“What a beautiful idea!” “It is so,” said I, “and if it had been my own, it must have owed its existence to you; for your dancing is certainly the true poetry of motion, and _Epic_ poetry too.” “I love dancing with all my heart,” she replied: “when I dance I have not a care on earth--every thing swims gaily before me; and I feel as swiftly borne away in a vortex of pleasurable sensation.”