A COLONIAL BALL
The next Wednesday evening, after singing-school, Maid Sally said to
Master Sutcliff, with many a blush and a queer quaking of the voice:
"I have a great desire to see something of the fine ball, but there
appeareth no way for me to do it."
Master Sutcliff laughed at the courage as well as the frightened,
anxious face of the maid. He next looked thoughtful for a space, and
then said, with nods and bows that made Sally's heart leap:
"I play the violin for the company, and must needs have rosin at hand in
case a string getteth obstinate. And it might beseem me to have some one
nigh to hand me music in the order it must be played."
"Oh, but I can't be seen," cried Maid Sally.
"No more you need, young maid. Many fiddlers will be there, and you can
have a low seat, even on a cricket hard by the bass viol, and though the
players will be on a high platform, you can hide for a little while
behind the big instrument and have a good peep at it all."
"How can I get in?" asked Sally.
"You can enter under the shadow of my wing," said Master Sutcliff, "but
not long had you best remain. At first no one would notice you, but it
might not be easy for you to long hide entirely: we change places once
in a while."
"I will go the moment I am bid," said the maiden.
* * * * *
In very truth all the bliss of Fairy Land opened up to Sally the next
night.
Never before had the maiden had an idea of the glamour, the bewitchment,
the splendor of such a scene.
The costumes, or dresses, the dancing, and courtly manners,--the
manners of those who are about the court of a king,--the music that
thrilled and charmed her, sending all kinds of bright and airy dreams
through her mind, all these sent the blood rushing swiftly through the
veins of the delighted maid as, spell-bound, she peered from behind the
great bass viol.
"Oh, it is heaven, heaven!" she panted, as with great starry eyes she
looked down upon the splendid company. "And I, I could so enjoy it all,
had I only been born to it! Was I born to it? Oh, no, no, it could not
be!"
"Who knows?" faintly asked her Fairy.
But Sally spent not much time in asking longing questions. The room
seemed filled with the odor of musk, attar of roses, and cologne,
flowers, and perfumes of many kinds.
There was the governor, brilliant as a king, in purple velvet coat, gold
lace, a white, flowered waistcoat with great frills of costly lace adown
the front and falling over his white hands.
Shining knee-buckles flashed back the light from hundreds of candles,
which caught also the light from gleaming stones in the buckles of his
high-heeled shoes. A man of fancy-fine appearance, but looked upon with
eyes that loved him not, but rather despised him.
The ladies were like Fairy dreams, in stiff, brocaded-silks, sheeny
satins, ribbons, lace, jewels, and necklaces of gold, amber, and
medallions--round stones with faces cut on them.
With dazzled eyes, Sally gazed upon the courtlike appearance of Sir
Percival Grandison, his wife, daughter, and niece. But her eyes lingered
long on the Lady Rosamond Earlscourt.
Never in her brightest visions had the poor maid watching from the
platform beheld such radiance. The powdered hair was cushioned high on
her head, and held between the puffs were white plumes and glossy
leaves, joined in loops of small gilt chains.
Her bodice, or short waist, of pink velvet was laced over gauze puffings
and ran down both in front and at the back into long points over an
upper skirt of white lace figured all over with threads of gold. The
overskirt of gauze and gold was looped high at the sides over a skirt or
petticoat of white brocaded satin with a figure of pink roses. On cheek
and chin were small black patches bringing out in vivid contrast the
whiteness of her skin.
Her snowy neck and shoulders were bare, and a string of thick gold beads
strung on a wire kept directly in the curve of her throat. Gold
bracelets with sparkling gems were on her white arms, a spray of pink
roses was against her bosom, and the feet that peeped plainly from
beneath her skirt were in white laced shoes, with high heels and
rosettes from which glistened the bright tints of pink stones.
Sally gazed enthralled,--held in a dream,--with a strange pain tugging
at her heart.
The question of why, why, was she out of all these things to which her
whole nature leaped as if they should be hers by right, was only kept
down by the wonder and splendor of all she saw.
But she caught her breath in fresh admiration when her eye fell on her
Fairy Prince.
He had been detained a few moments in the rooms below, and was directly
on a line with her eyes when suddenly she beheld him for the first time
in more than two years.
"Fairy Prince! Fairy Prince!" cried her heart and faintly cried her
lips, and she knew it not when Master Clinton turned around from his
bass viol, thinking he heard a strange sound. But he heeded not the rapt
gaze of the maiden, for she sat quiet as any mousie while her eyes drank
in the vision of her Fairy Prince.
His thick hair was lightly powdered and curled at the ends. A coat of
blue velvet with silver braid and buttons of filagree,--or wrought
openwork silver buttons,--fitted as if moulded to his tall, erect young
figure. His waistcoat of cloth of gold had frills of rich lace at the
front, according to the general fashion of the day, and also at the
wrists. A flashing diamond on his finger sent out shoots of red, blue,
and yellow light.
He wore knee-breeches of blue velvet with bands of silver braid and
jewelled buckles at the knee. His long white silk stockings were
clocked, or embroidered at the sides, while high-heeled, glittering
dancing-pumps set off his highly arched feet.
Sally noted the grace with which he bowed to the ladies and the low
curtseys they returned. The ease and fine manners charmed her.
"They are born to it! born to it!" sighed the poor young maiden.
When the dancing began, she still sat entranced, watching chiefly one
tall, splendidly arrayed young man who kept perfect time to the music,
which rose and fell with a beauty of sound that brought tears to the
eyes of Maid Sally.
Master Sutcliff, seeing the intense delight on the face of the maiden,
said within himself:
"She shall remain until it cometh time to serve the syllabubs, the cream
froth and the nectars, then can she slip away without being seen."
It came all too soon, the pause in the merry dancing, for refreshments,
when Master Sutcliff said, kindly:
"Now then, young friend, I fear me the time has come when you had best
depart. I will go with you to the side door, so that none shall question
or trouble you."
As they passed a long room, he said, "Peep within a moment."
And Sally looked upon tables covered with all kinds of fancy dishes:
there were froths, foamy custards, jellies she could almost see through,
plum cakes, pound cakes, and the odor of strong, rich coffee, mingled
with the scent of flowers.
Colored servants were moving to and fro with the slow step of the
Southern waiter, and everything was orderly, abundant, and inviting.
Master Sutcliff said something to a man close at hand, and the next
moment he was bidding Sally good night, at the same time he laid
something on her arm.
"Merely a cheese-cake," he said, and in the soft moonlight Sally saw
that she held a heart-shaped cake filled with currants, with thin
spires of cocoanut and cheese standing thick all over the top.
She entered the house through the shed at the side, went to her cubby of
a room, and sat down on the floor with her head against the bed.
"I am too happy to undress," she said, "or else too full of what I have
seen. I must think it all right over."
And there she stayed the livelong night with her shawl about her.
When at last she fell asleep, she saw her Fairy Prince, in his velvet
coat, his rich small-clothes and dancing-shoes, as large as life before
her. The music of the violins with the deep note of the bass viol
sounded almost as plainly in her ears as they had in the Hall of
Burgesses.
But standing in the full light of the streaming candles was Rosamond
Earlscourt, a lovely creature in silks and jewels, beckoning with an
eager finger to the Fairy Prince.
Would he go? He had started toward her when his eye fell on a young
maiden who was hiding midst the players on the platform.
This so alarmed the maid that she hid far behind Master Clinton's bass
viol. But peeping around after a few moments, she saw the Fairy Prince
was close at hand.
With a frightened jump she awoke. The sun was streaming into her little
room.
"He was going to find me," said Maid Sally.