'Why?'
'My father, though he allowed me to be taught, never liked the idea of my dancing.'
'Did he make you promise anything on the point?'
'He said he was not in favour of such amusements--no more.'
'I think you are not bound by that, on an informal occasion like the present.'
She was silent.
'You will just once?' said he.
Another silence. 'If you like,' she venturesomely answered at last.
Somerset closed the hand which was hanging by his side, and somehow hers was in it. The dance was nearly formed, and he led her forward. Several persons looked at them significantly, but he did not notice it then, and plunged into the maze.
Never had Mr. Somerset passed through such an experience before. Had he not felt her actual weight and warmth, he might have fancied the whole episode a figment of the imagination. It seemed as if those musicians had thrown a double sweetness into their notes on seeing the mistress of the castle in the dance, that a perfumed southern atmosphere had begun to pervade the marquee, and that human beings were shaking themselves free of all inconvenient gravitation.
Somerset's feelings burst from his lips. 'This is the happiest moment I have ever known,' he said. 'Do you know why?'
'I think I saw a flash of lightning through the opening of the tent,' said Paula, with roguish abruptness.
He did not press for an answer. Within a few minutes a long growl of thunder was heard. It was as if Jove could not refrain from testifying his jealousy of Somerset for taking this covetable woman so presumptuously in his arms.
The dance was over, and he had retired with Paula to the back of the tent, when another faint flash of lightning was visible through an opening. She lifted the canvas, and looked out, Somerset looking out behind her. Another dance was begun, and being on this account left out of notice, Somerset did not hasten to leave Paula's side.
'I think they begin to feel the heat,' she said.
'A little ventilation would do no harm.' He flung back the tent door where he stood, and the light shone out upon the grass.
'I must go to the drawing-room soon,' she added. 'They will begin to leave shortly.'
'It is not late. The thunder-cloud has made it seem dark--see there; a line of pale yellow stretches along the horizon from west to north. That's evening--not gone yet. Shall we go into the fresh air for a minute?'
She seemed to signify assent, and he stepped off the tent-floor upon the ground. She stepped off also.