The captain silently pressed the rose to his lips; I did not look, but I knew it. I would not have encountered his eyes at that moment for all the world.
He then left me and sat down under a mirror opposite; he did not dance, and seemed absorbed in his own reflections.
Meanwhile two csardas and a polonaise were danced, after which our quadrille would come. You may conceive how long the time appeared; these eternal "harom a tanczes" seemed absolutely to have no end. I never saw people dance so furiously; and although it was the third night they had not slept, nothing would tire them out. However, I amused myself pretty well by making the acquaintance of the commander of the battalion, Major Sch——, who is a most diverting person.
His name is German; and though he speaks Hungarian shockingly, he will always speak it, even if he is addressed in German or French. Then he is most dreadfully deaf, and accustomed to such loud-toned conversation, one would think the cannons were conversing together.
They say he is a very gallant soldier; but his appearance is not prepossessing—an uncouth, grotesque figure, with a long thin face, short-cut hair, and a grisly beard, which is not at all becoming. But the most amusing thing was, that what I spoke he did not hear; and what he spoke I did not understand. He brought me over a box of bonbons; and I complained of the badness of confectionary in our town. He probably supposed from my grimace that somebody had offended me at the ball, and answered something, from which—by the gestures which accompanied it—I could only infer that he intended cutting the offender in pieces; unless indeed what others would express under such circumstances may be the common gesticulation of men who live in war.
At last, my quadrille came. The band played the symphony, and the dancers hastened to seek their partners.
My heart almost burst from my dress when I saw my dancer approach, and, bowing low, press the little flower to his heart.
I fear my hand trembled as he took it in his; but I only smiled, and made some observation about the music.
"Ah, you are carrying off my neighbour!" cried the major, laughing, with one of his "annihilating" gesticulations.
As we joined the columns, somebody whispered behind us, "What a well-matched couple!"