A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 135 In these circumstances it was perhaps fortunate that I had little to do except answer questions, the ladies whose acquaintance I made being insatiably curious. But I. soon found that if I wanted to be believed I must keep back a portion of the truth. When, in answer to a ques- tion about the size of London, I said that its population ras nearly four millions, and that a hundred thousand strangers left and entered it every day, the significant smile which went round told me that the statement was regarded as monstrous and incredible. My account of the electric telegraph and some other modern scientific and mechanical achievements was received with even greater incredulity, especially by the men, who, though _ too polite openly to doubt my word, obviously thought me an unconscionable romancer. Only the queen affected to believe me, either because she was naturally more intelligent than the others, or that she was fresh from the perusal of the books and periodi- cals which we had brought from the Diana—or for some other and less obvious reason. The first dance was a Sir Roger de Coverley, inwhich f had Mab for a partner; then followed a minuet, which, at her pressing instance, I attempted—with poor success, however. There was an immense deal of bowing on the part of the men, and courtesying on the part of the women, the latter bending so low that more than one disaster seemed imminent; but they always recovered their perpendicular with remarkable agility and grace. Next came a fandango, doubtless a bequest from Denzil Fane’s Spanish wive. After this the queen asked me to show her how to waltz. She proved an apt pupil—ac- quired the step in a few minutes; I whistled to the mu- sicians a few bars of a waltz, which they picked up in no time, and the next moment we were whirling round the room—to the astonishment of all beholders. ‘They had never seen anything like it before. We had a long spin —Mab being in excellent wind—and when I escorted her to her seat, I could see by the manner of some of the younger men that they envied me my good fortune, and that the favor shown me by the queen was beginning to excite jealousy, and might make me enemies. Be that as it may, waltzing became the fashion. All wanted to learn the step at once, and I had very nearly as many In- GOmMmiiGc JOO (Ee)