New Monthly Magazine (Volume 47) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: centre, in which the first gentleman seats his partner. He then leads up and presents each of the other gentlemen in succession. If the lady rejects, the discarded retires behind the chair; but when " the right man," as the old saying goes, arrives, she springs up, the time and accent of the music are accelerated, and off she waltzes with the elected. The rest seize their partners, and the circle is continued. All, in turn, go through the same process. Three chairs are then placed. A lady (in succession) is seated between two beaux, who importunately solicit her reluctant regard; till, at length, she gives herself, by an impulse, as it were, to one, and the waltzing is resumed. A gentleman is then seated in the centre chair, hood-winked, and a lady takes the place on eacli side. In this perplexity of choice the Tantalus of the minute remains; till, by a sudden resolution, he decides for right or left, uncovers his eyes, and waltzes away with the chance-directed partner, followed as before by the rest. The chairs are then placed dos a dos triangularly, and three ladies are thus seated; the youths pace round them in a circle; till each of the fair ones throws her handkerchief, and away they again whirl. The men then appear to deliver to each?but to one only is it really given?a ring; arid the dance concludes by the ladies passing hand in hand through arches made by the elevated arms of the gentlemen, till each seizes his partner, and once more swings round the circle. We have certainly never seen any thing in private society so gay, so full of fantasy, or so charming, as this display of naivete, grace, and playfulness. I may now curtsey to my partner, for our dance is ended. SONGS BY L. E. L. I loved her! and her azure eyes Haunted me from sweet sunrise To the dewy eve...