beginning to the sound of the band occupying the centre of this
circular ballroom. If that roof could speak, what love-stories could
it not tell!

This interesting medley gave the Sceaux balls at that time a spice of
more amusement than those of two or three places of the same kind near
Paris; and it had incontestable advantages in its rotunda, and the
beauty of its situation and its gardens. Emilie was the first to
express a wish to play at being COMMON FOLK at this gleeful suburban
entertainment, and promised herself immense pleasure in mingling with
the crowd. Everybody wondered at her desire to wander through such a
mob; but is there not a keen pleasure to grand people in an incognito?
Mademoiselle de Fontaine amused herself with imagining all these
town-bred figures; she fancied herself leaving the memory of a
bewitching glance and smile stamped on more than one shopkeeper's heart,
laughed beforehand at the damsels' airs, and sharpened her pencils for
the scenes she proposed to sketch in her satirical album. Sunday could
not come soon enough to satisfy her impatience.

The party from the Villa Planat set out on foot, so as not to betray
the rank of the personages who were about to honor the ball with their
presence. They dined early. And the month of May humored this
aristocratic escapade by one of its finest evenings. Mademoiselle de
Fontaine was quite surprised to find in the rotunda some quadrilles
made up of persons who seemed to belong to the upper classes. Here and
there, indeed, were some young men who look as though they must have
saved for a month to shine for a day; and she perceived several
couples whose too hearty glee suggested nothing conjugal; still, she
could only glean instead of gathering a harvest. She was amused to see
that pleasure in a cotton dress was so very like pleasure robed in