What, go to Jeb Stuart's ball and not dance, when the fair and bright young womanhood of Virginia is present?
And I a South Carolinian! What would they think of my gallantry, Hector, if I did not ?" "It is certainly fitting, Leonidas.

I used to be a master myself of all the steps, waltz and gavotte and the Virginia reel and the others.
Once, when I was only twenty, I went to New Orleans to visit my cousins, the de Crespignys, and many of them there were, four brothers, with seven or eight children apiece, mostly girls; and 'pon my soul, Leonidas, for the two months I was gone I did little but dance.

What else could one do when he had about twenty girl cousins, all of dancing age?
We danced in New Orleans and we danced out on the great plantation of Louis de Crespigny, the oldest of the brothers, and all the neighbors for miles around danced with us.

There was one of my cousins, a third cousin only she was, Flora de Crespigny, just seventeen years of age, but a beautiful girl, Leonidas, a most beautiful girl--they ripen fast down there.

Once at the de Crespigny plantation I danced all day and all the night following, mostly with her.