Handsome and trim and affable, no imaginable tourist could possibly have divinedfor everybody in Lichfield knew, of coursethat Rudolph Musgrave had rounded his half-century; and he stayed, as ever, invaluable to Lichfield matrons alike against the entertainment of an "out-of-town" girl, the management of a cotillon, and the prevention of unpleasant pauses among incongruous dinner-companies.

They are going to dance a cotillon.

I imagine it is something about the cotillon, concerning which I am absolutely ignorant, and am therefore capable of offering any amount of advice.

"About this cotillon," she said; then she broke off: "Do you know what is going to happen to-night?

"Yes," said Howard; "we have been plotting the cotillon and very properly arranging that the prize shall go to the wisest, the nicest, and best-looking man in the room.

Then, assembled in company, it would seem as if they were practising a cotillon upon the wing, each one singing to his own movements, as he sallies forth and returns,and nothing can exceed their apparent merriment.

So she be gentle, kindly, and loving, what care I if at sixteen years of age she cannot paint the baptism of John upon velvet, does not know a word of that accursed French language, breaks down in the "forward and back" of a cotillon, and cannot with spider fingers spin upon the piano the swiftest Tarantelle of Chopin.[Illustration: musical note] = 2558 Metronome?

It was such an astonishing thing for girls at that time to have the advantages of education that I had absolutely to go to cotillon parties to let people see that I had common sense.

But now the poor music of the accordion was quite extinguished by the bellowing of the brazen horns of the "cotillon band" on the deck of our expected steamer, as she rounded to from the upper piers at which she had been taking in excursionists.

But the band had now ceased mellowing out the favorite medley which begins with "Casta Diva" and runs over into the lovely cadences of "Gentle Annie"; and the abrupt transition from that mournful strain to a light cotillon air warned four hundred holiday-people that the festive dance was about to begin on the wide floor between the engine-room and the saloon.

She never has been to cotillon or ball, And she knows not the styles of the Spring or the Fall; Two hundred a year will suffice for her needs, And an old-fashioned Bible is all that she reads.

And there is always the cotillon; but the favours and flowers are much better than anyone would have in Paris.

The cotillon, with its uniform step and more graceful style, had been already introduced by instructors, who had found short engagements under the severe reprobation of the Orthodox churches; but the waltz was unknown, except in name, and the polka, schottische, etc., had then never been mentioned on the Reserve.

He presses Teresa's hand, and whispers in her ear that "she must not forget her promise about the cotillon.

The cotillon is a matter of grave considerationthe very gravest.

On the success of the cotillon depends the success of the evening.

No one asked what Franchi had heard, all being intent about the cotillon and the choice of partners.

"You must go at once and talk to Trenta about the cotillon.

But we must think of the cotillon.

"Am I obliged to dance the cotillon at all, cavaliere?" added Nobili, more and more confused.

The musicians also were refreshed with good wine and liquors, before the arduous labors of the cotillon commenced.

Now, Nera, who had been dancing much with Prince Ruspoli, had heard from him that Nobili was selected as her partner in the cotillon.

"I am to have the honor of dancing the cotillon with you, I believe?" he said, still looking down.

At this moment, the melody of a voluptuous waltz, the opening of the cotillon, burst from the orchestra with an entrain that might have moved an anchorite.

The Cotillon XXII.