Mr. Jelnik sent regrets.
We had waxed the floors, and moved most of the furniture out of the
big front drawing-room; and this and the wide halls were used for a
ball-room, just as they had been used in the old days. The older
people played cards in the living-room and library. Every now and
then, between pauses, some masked and brilliant figure, like a
bright ghost from the past, would steal in to look over their
shoulders and whisper in their ears.
But those grandparents weren't content to sit down and play cards
while others footed it. Not they! They danced the Lancers, and a
polka or two, and waltzed and dipped and bowed to "Comin' through
the Rye" while all the masqueraders lined up against the walls to
admire and applaud. And after the gayest sort of a buffet supper,
the prizes that had been won by a belle and a trooper of '61--she in
her grandmother's crinoline and he in his grandfather's gray
jacket--were turned over by acclaim to a sprightly lady of seventy
and her sprightlier partner of seventy-five, for coming disguised as
old folks. The Author made the presentation speech. He began it by
saying that in South Carolina any man might well be excused for
falling in love with his grandmother.
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