As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that true
knight was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such as the
state of the country called for. When he was at home, all was fun
and merriment and noise--walks and rides on fine days, battledore
and shuttlecock on wet ones, music, singing, paper games, giggling
and making giggle, and sometimes dancing in the hall--Mr. Frank
Fordyce joining with all his heart and drollery in many of these,
like the boy he was.
I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a reel-
-nobody thought of waltzes--and the three couples changed and
counterchanged partners. Clarence had the sailor's foot, and did
his part when needed; Emily generally fell to his share, and their
silence and gravity contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs.
He knew very well he was the pis aller of the party, and only danced
when Parson Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his little
daughter. With Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the chance of
dancing; she was always claimed by Griff, or pounced upon by Martyn.
Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those pretty
lips scrupulously 'Mistered' and 'Winslowed' us. I don't think she
would have been more to us, if we had called her Nell, and had been
Griff, Bill, and Ted to her, or if there had not been all the little
formalities of avoiding tete a tetes and the like.
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