The Heart

Such a blaze of light as was the governor's mansion house that night

I never saw, and I heard the music of violins, and hautboys, and

viola da gambas coming from within, and a silvery babble of women's

tongues, with a deeper undertone of men's, and the tread of dancing

feet, and the stamping of horses outside, with the whoas of the

negro boys in attendance, and through the broad gleam of the

moonlight came the flare and smoke of the torches. It seemed as if

the whole colony was either dancing at the governor's ball or

standing outside on tiptoe with interest. I sat waiting for some

time, holding my restive horse as best I might, but there coming no

cessation in the music, I dismounted, and seeing one of Madam

Cavendish's black men, gave him the bridle to hold, and went up to

the house and entered, though not in my plum-coloured velvet, and,

indeed, being not only in my ordinary clothes, but somewhat splashed

with mire from my mad gallop through the woods. But I judged rightly

that in so much of a crowd I should pass unnoticed both as to myself

and my apparel. I stood in the great room near the door and watched

the dance, and 'twas as brilliant a scene as ever I had seen

anywhere even in England.

The musicians in the gallery were sawing

away for their lives on violins, and working breathlessly at the

hautboys, and all that gay company of Virginia's best, spinning

about in a country dance of old England. Such a brave show of velvet

coats, and breeches, and flowered brocade waistcoats, and powdered

wigs, and feathers, and laces, and ribbons, and rich flaunts of

petticoats revealing in the whirl of the dance clocked hose on

slender ankles, and high-heeled satin shoes, would have done no

discredit to the court. But of them all, Mistress Mary Cavendish was

the belle and the star. She was dancing with my Lord Estes when I

entered, and such a goodly couple they were, that I heard many an

exclamation of delight from the spectators, who stood thickly about

the walls, the windows even being filled with faces of black and

white servants. My Lord Estes was a handsome dark man, handsomer and

older than Sir Humphrey Hyde, who, though dancing with the

governor's daughter Cate, had, I could see, a rueful eye of

watchfulness toward Mary Cavendish. As he and Cate Culpeper swung

past me, Sir Humphrey's eyes fell on my face and he gave a start and

blush, and presently, when the dance was over and his partner

seated, came up to me with hand extended, as if I had been the

noblest guest there. "Harry, Harry," he whispered eagerly, "she hath

danced with me three times to-night, and hath promised again, and

Harry, saw you ever any one so beautiful as she in that blue dress?"