The second young lady had also a personal
didactic gift, rivaling, and even surpassing in some respects, that of the
star; and was very rowdy indeed. In due time the devoted conduct of the
young ladies has its just effect: the three fast men begin to reflect upon
the folly of their wild courses; and at this point the dramatist delivers
his great stroke. The first lady gives a _soiree dansante et
chantante_, and the three fast men have invitations. The guests seat
themselves, as at a fashionable party, in a semicircle, and the gayety of
the evening begins with conundrums and playing upon the banjo; the
gentlemen are in their morning-coats, and the ladies in a display of
hosiery which is now no longer surprising, and which need not have been
mentioned at all except for the fact that, in the case of the first lady,
it seemed not to have been freshly put on for that party. In this instance
an element comical beyond intention was present, in three young gentlemen,
an amateur musical trio, who had kindly consented to sing their favorite
song of "The Rolling Zuyder Zee," as they now kindly did, with flushed
faces, unmanageable hands, and much repetition of
The ro-o-o-o-
The ro-o-o-o-
The ro-o-o-o-ll-
Ing Zuyder Zee,
Zuyder Zee,
Zuyder Zee-e-e!
Then the turn of the three guardian angels of the fast men being come
again they get up and dance each one a breakdown which seems to establish
their lovers (now at last in the secret of the generous ruse played upon
them) firmly in their resolution to lead a better life.
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