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 station, in the flivver. At any rate that will impress him with the state of our finances."

They followed Lorli like two guilty schoolboys. In the ballroom they found a determined-looking trio: Pigalle to play the piano, Frau Innsbruck to represent the Quackenbush, Romsteck to supervise. The major domo had already removed all small gilded chairs from Herr Leutz's access.

"Dancing of the ballroom sort," he said solemnly to his two pupils, "is very different from the rustic manœuvres we executed yesterday. Owing to the greater intimacy of personal contact, all the more grace of deportment is necessary. It was the Grand Duke's custom, in these affairs, always to begin by inviting any lady he specially desired to honour to accompany him in a lively fox-trot. For example."

He bowed magnificently to Frau Innsbruck, motioned to Pigalle who struck up some spirited and mischievous syncopations, and swam off with the housekeeper into a species of rotating pedestrianism with occasional sideways slidings.