under the erect body of the

A dance then. The advantage of a dance was that it abolished oneof those long evenings which were apt to become tedious and leadto absurdly early hours in spite of bridge. 　　Two or three people standing under the erect body of the stuffedleopard in the hall very soon had the matter decided. Evelyn slida pace or two this way and that, and pronounced that the floorwas excellent. Signor Rodriguez informed them of an old Spaniardwho fiddled at weddings--fiddled so as to make a tortoise waltz;and his daughter, although endowed with eyes as black ascoal-scuttles, had the same power over the piano. If therewere any so sick or so surly as to prefer sedentary occupationson the night in question to spinning and watching others spin,the drawing-room and billiard-room were theirs. Hewet made ithis business to conciliate the outsiders as much as possible. 　　To Hirst's theory of the invisible chalk-marks he would pay noattention whatever. He was treated to a snub or two, but, in reward,found obscure lonely gentlemen delighted to have this opportunityof talking to their kind, and the lady of doubtful character showedevery symptom of confiding her case to him in the near future. 　　Indeed it was made quite obvious to him that the two or three hoursbetween dinner and bed contained an amount of unhappiness, which wasreally pitiable, so many people had not succeeded in making friends. 　　It was settled that the dance was to be on Friday, one week afterthe engagement, and at dinner Hewet declared himself satisfied. 　　"They're all coming!" he told Hirst. "Pepper!" he called,seeing William Pepper slip past in the wake of the soup witha pamphlet beneath his arm, "We're counting on you to open the ball.""You will certainly put sleep out of the question," Pepper returned. 　　"You are to take the floor with Miss Allan," Hewet continued,consulting a sheet of pencilled notes.