“Well,” said Leonore after a pause, “are you going to do that?”
So Peter tried again, and again, and again. Peter would have done it all night, with absolute contentment, so long as Leonore, after every failure, would show him the right way in her own person.
Finally she said, “Now take my hands. No. Way apart, so that I can see your feet. Now. We’ll try it together. One, two, change. One, two, change.”
Peter thought this much better, and was ready to go on till strength failed. But after a time, Leonore said, “Now. We’ll try it the true way. Take my hand so and put your arm so. That’s the way. Only never hold a girl too close. We hate it. Yes. That’s it. Now, mamma. Again. One, two, three. One, two, three.”
This was heavenly, Peter thought, and could have wept over the shortness, as it seemed to him, of this part of the lesson.
But it ended, and Leonore said: “If you’ll practice that in your room, with a bolster, you’ll get on very fast.”
“I always make haste slowly,” said Peter, not taking to the bolster idea at all kindly. “Probably you can find time to-morrow for another lesson, and I’ll learn much quicker with you.”
“I’ll see.”
“And will you give me some waltzes at the dances?”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said Leonore. “You shall have the dances the other men don’t ask of me. But you don’t dance well enough, in case I can get a better partner. I love valsing too much to waste one with a poor dancer.”