Quotation from: The Little Lady of the Big House

Written by: Jack London


Never was Paula alone. Graham could only join in the groups that were
always about her. Although the young people ragged and tangoed
incessantly, she rarely danced, and then it was with the young men.
Once, however, she favored him with an old-fashioned waltz. "Your
ancestors in an antediluvian dance," she mocked the young people, as
she stepped out; for she and Graham had the floor to themselves.


Once down the length of the room, the two were in full accord. Paula,
with the sympathy Graham recognized that made her the exceptional
accompanist or rider, subdued herself to the masterful art of the man,
until the two were as parts of a sentient machine that operated
without jar or friction. After several minutes, finding their perfect
mutual step and pace, and Graham feeling the absolute giving of Paula
to the dance, they essayed rhythmical pauses and dips, their feet
never leaving the floor, yet affecting the onlookers in the way Dick
voiced it when he cried out: "They float! They float!" The music was
the "Waltz of Salomé," and with its slow-fading end they postured
slower and slower to a perfect close.

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