Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/157

Rh which is danced after the heart's pleasure and inspiration. It seems to me to be the ideal of all dancing when it becomes the expression of the joy and delight of life. I was never tired of following the soft and bold movements of the dancers as they now approached and now withdrew from each other, with gestures expressive, now of playful defiance, now of cordiality, and a joyful abandon. There is foaming champagne in this dance.

La Ballerina is a kind of cotillion, but has in it, with the Italians, an element of mimicry and of improvisation, which is not to be found in the weak and tame cotillion of our drawing-rooms. Il Sospiro, struck me as the most original of the dances. In it, men and women alternately sigh for each other; and in it is represented a whole series of love-episodes; as Angelino explained them to me.

But to return to the Carnival—of which the model's ball is an offspring.

Monday came, and with it a cloudy sky and cloudy countenances; and in the afternoon rain and storm worse than on the preceding days! The Carnival now lost its spirit. Only a few carriages and fewer pedestrians on the Corso, whose inhabitants threw their bouquets into the mud, and the street-boys did not think it worth while to pick them up. It is very annoying! and the morrow is the last day of the Carnival, tbe great day, the Moccoli-day; for the Carnival will then die and people will celebrate its funeral according to the Catholic custom of lighting candles for the dead. It is said to be a grand spectacle, but will be a dismal one if the weather do not change.