Ah! another delightful glimpse of society has been offered
to our charmed view. Such a treat has not often fallen to our lot. Good Mrs.
Greyson, in her anxiety to make all around her happy, determined we should have
a dance. I should say “Miriam”; for Mrs. Bull and Mrs. Ivy never indulge in
such amusements, and I can't; so it must have been for Miriam alone. Such a
crew! The two ladies above mentioned and I almost laughed ourselves into
hysterics. Poor Miriam, with a tall, slender Texan who looked as though he had chopped
wood all his life, moved through the dance like the lady in “Comus”;
only, now and then a burst of laughter at the odd mistakes threatened to
overcome her dignity. We who were fortunately exempt from the ordeal, laughed
unrestrainedly at the mêlée. One danced entirely
with his arms; his feet had very little to do with the time. One hopped through
with a most dolorous expression of intense absorption in the arduous task.
Another never changed a benign smile that had appeared on entering, but
preserved it unimpaired through every accident. One female, apparently of the
tender age of thirty, wore a yellow muslin, with her hair combed rigidly à
la chinoise, and tightly fastened at the back of her head in a knot
whose circumference must have been fully equal to that of a dollar. In addition
to other charms, she bore her neck and chin in a very peculiar manner, as
though she were looking over the fence, Mr. Christmas remarked. Mr. Christmas
had ridden all the way from Ponchatoula to see us, and if it had not been for
him, Mr. Worthington, and Dr. Capdevielle, who came in after a while, I think I
should have expired, and even Miriam would have given up in despair. The Doctor
was an old friend of Harry's, though we never met him before.
SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's
Diary, p. 363-4
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