You look out on Italian gardens, and you know that you are nowhere near New York, with its prose and drudgery.

If for a moment it seems all a bit too perfect for the haphazard, inspirational loveliness of the Village, you will surely have an arresting instinct which will tell you that it is just consummating a Village dream; it is just making what every Villager lives to make come true: perfect artistic beauty.
As we have seen, dancing is a real passion in the Village.

So we can scarcely leave it without touching on the "Village dances" which have been so striking a feature of recent times and have proved so useful and so fruitful to the tired Sunday-supplement newspaperman.

There are various sorts, from the regular pageants staged by the Liberal Club and the Kit Kat, to those of more modest pretensions given by individual Villagers or groups of Villagers.
The _Quatres Arts_ balls of Paris doubtless formed the basis for these affairs; indeed, a description given me years ago by William Dodge, the artist, might almost serve as the story of one of these Village balls today.

And Doris, who, I believe, appeared on one occasion as "Aphrodite,"-- in appropriate "costume"-- recalls the celebrated model Sara Brown who electrified Paris by her impersonation of "Cleopatra" at a _"Quatz 'Arts"_ gathering,--somewhat similarly arrayed,--or should we say decorated?
The costumes,--many of them at least,--are largely--paint! This is not nearly as improper as it sounds.