Daughter of the House (anxious to introduce Partners to each other). "Is your Card quite full, Mr. M'sawney?" Mr. M'Sawney. "Oh dear, no! Which dance shall I give you?"
THE "SALUTE;" OR, TAKING DISTANCE.
"When the assault is given in the presence of spectators, it is not uncommon to precede it by the Salute, which shows the scheme and various figures, as it were, of the attack and defence in a precise, ceremonious manner, and with the same kind of courtly ritual as that which distinguishes the minuet."—H. A. Colmore Dunn's "Fencing."
There, standing face to face, foil in hand,
Just out of lunging range they salute,
Who anon, swordsman stark, old fencer grand,
Must fight their duel out, foot to foot.
Mere preliminary flourish, all of this;
The punctilio of "form" without a fault;