Page:Pleased to Meet You (1927).pdf/90

 To the President, who was totally unfamiliar with modern dancing, it seemed completely absurd. Frau Innsbruck's solid figure, moulded on the Queen Victoria contour, floated with genteel gravity in this antic demonstration.

"So," said Romsteck, bringing the lady to port alongside the reluctant chief magistrate. "Now the Herr President and the Herr Minister are to imagine themselves entering the ballroom with their partners. The music begins, they are off."

Even in this emergency Herr Guadeloupe's presence of mind did not wholly desert him. He felt that he would learn better with Lorli, so he moved to grasp her, intending to leave the housekeeper to the embrace of Herr Leutz. But Romsteck intervened. "With Frau Innsbruck, if you please. It will be better practice. She has the mature configuration, such as we may assume Frau Quackenbush to possess."

The music seemed terribly rapid to the two pupils as they struggled to imitate what they had seen. "One, two, three and four and one,