Equal gayety reigned within doors, where a large party of friends were
entertained. Every one laughed at his own pleasantry, without
attending to that of his neighbours. Loads of bride-cake were
distributed. The young ladies were all busy in passing morsels of it
through the wedding-ring to dream on, and I myself assisted a few
little boarding-school girls in putting up a quantity for their
companions, which I have no doubt will set all the little heads in the
school gadding, for a week at least.
After dinner, all the company, great and small, gentle and simple,
abandoned themselves to the dance: not the modern quadrille, with its
graceful gravity, but the merry, social, old country-dance; the true
dance, as the Squire says, for a wedding occasion, as it sets all the
world jigging in couples, hand in hand, and makes every eye and every
heart dance merrily to the music. According to frank old usage, the
gentlefolks of the Hall mingled for a tune in the dance of the
peasantry, who had a great tent erected for a ball-room; and I think I
never saw Master Simon more in his element, than when figuring about
among his rustic admirers, as master of the ceremonies; and, with a
mingled air of protection and gallantry, leading out the quondam Queen
of May, all blushing at the signal honour conferred upon her.
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