CHAPTER XI--DANCING 



'Prescribe us not our duties.' 

'Well, Phyllis,' said her father, as he passed through the hall to mount his horse, 'how do you like the prospect of Monsieur le Roi's instructions?' 

'Not at all, papa,' answered Phyllis, running out to the hall door to pat the horse, and give it a piece of bread. 

'Take care you turn out your toes,' said Mr. Mohun. 'You must learn to dance like a dragon before Cousin Rotherwood's birthday next year.' 

'Papa, how do dragons dance?' 

'That is a question I must decide at my leisure,' said Mr. Mohun, mounting. 'Stand out of the way, Phyl, or you will feel how horses dance.' 

Away he rode, while Phyllis turned with unwilling steps to the nursery, to be dressed for her first dancing lesson; Marianne Weston was to learn with her, and this was some consolation, but Phyllis could not share in the satisfaction Adeline felt in the arrival of Monsieur le Roi. Jane was also a pupil, but Lily, whose recollections of her own dancing days were not agreeable, absented herself entirely from the dancing-room, even though Alethea Weston had come with her sister. 

Poor Phyllis danced as awkwardly as was expected, but Adeline seemed likely to be a pupil in whom a master might rejoice; Marianne was very attentive and not ungraceful, but Alethea soon saw reason to regret the arrangement that had been made, for she perceived that Jane considered the master a fair subject for derision, and her 'nods and becks, and wreathed smiles,' called up corresponding looks in Marianne's face. 
What did she inquire of her dad?
how do dragons dance