"Now!" thought she, as Lieutenant S---- approached her quickly. But Lieutenant S---- came to engage Miss T----, and Petrea remained sitting. The music played the liveliest _anglaise_, and Petrea's feet were all in agitation to be moving.
"Ah!" thought she, "if I were but a man I would engage Petrea."
The _anglaise_ streamed past Petrea's nose.
"Where is Eva?" asked Jeremias Munter, in a hasty and displeased tone, from Louise, in the pause between the _anglaise_ and the waltz.
"She has remained at home with Leonore," said Louise; "she was determined upon it."
"How stupid!" exclaimed he; "why did I come here then."
"Nay, that I really cannot tell!" returned Louise, smiling.
"Not!" retorted the Assessor. "Now then I will tell you, sister Louise, I came here entirely to see Eva dance--solely and altogether on that account, and for nothing else. What a stupid affair it was that she should stop at home! You had a great deal better, all the rest of you, have stopped at home together; you yourself, dear sister, reckoned into the bargain! Petrea, there! what has she to do here? She was always a vexation to me, but now I cannot endure her, since she has not understanding enough to stay at home in Eva's place; and this little curly-pate, which must dance with grown people just as if she were a regular person; could not she find a piece of sugar to keep her at home, instead of coming here to be in a flurry! You are all wearisome together; and such entertainments as these are the most horrible things I know."
Louise floated away in the waltz with Jacobi, laughing over this sally; and the Countess Solenstråle, the sun of the ball, said as she passed her chair, "Charmant, charmant!"
Besides this couple, who distinguished themselves by their easy harmonious motion, there was another, which whirled past in wild circles, and drew all eyes upon them likewise: this was Sara and the boisterous Schwartz. Her truly beaming beauty, her dress, her haughty bearing, her flashing eyes, called forth a universal ah! of astonishment and admiration. Petrea forgot that she was sitting while she looked upon her. She thought that she had never seen anything so transporting as Sara in the whirl of the dance. But the Countess Solenstråle, as she sate in her chair, said of this couple--nothing; nay, people even imagined that they read an expression of displeasure in her countenance. The Misses Aftonstjerna sailed round with much dignity.