Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/182

162 their leaders or those which they, separately, have to pass.

The scene was now all lively and exhilarating: about thirty couple, as many as the room would conveniently accommodate, were moving in graceful circles around it, impelled according to, what Newton calls, though he was a philosopher, and knew nothing about waltzing, "the ratio of their centrifugal forces and the respective influence of their attractions." The door leading into the street was crowded by a motley group of the holiday company, who had sufficient curiosity to witness the proceedings of their betters, but too much modesty or diffidence to follow their example. Two or three of the front rows of this "observant class of the community" as Washington Irving has it, were squatted down in front of the door, forming a semi-circle before it; behind them were children, who could just peep over their heads; next to them, some children of a larger growth, and, behind them, standing on tiptoe, some of a larger still: the