I40 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



The evening's entertainment was always con- 

 cluded with the boulanger, a dance whose quiet 

 movement seemed to come in appropriately, in order 

 to permit the revellers to cool off, before exposure 

 to the night air. It was a matter of no small im- 

 portance to secure a proper partner for this dance, 

 because, by an old custom, whoever last danced with 

 a lady, had a prescriptive right to see her home. 

 And this reminds us of another peculiarity of Pine- 

 ville life, viz., that though every family kept a car- 

 riage, nobody ever thought of returning from a ball 

 by any other mode but on foot. No carriage was 

 fever seen in the streets after dark. The servant, 

 with the lantern, marshalled the way ; and the lady, 

 escorted by her partner, was conducted to her home. 

 And as the season drew towards a close, how interest- 

 ing became these walks ! how many words of love 

 were spoken ! how many hearts saddened by the dis- 

 covery of the hopelessness of an attachment ! how 

 many persons, now living, whose destinies depended 

 upon these walks ! To many a dancer the boulan- 

 ger was a season of consciousness, of apprehension, 

 of delight reined in, of hope and of fear ; and there 

 are numbers still living, in whose recollections a 

 certain dance of this description will remain in- 

 delibly fixed. 



Besides regular and occasional dancing parties, 

 riding parties would be got up to promote inter- 

 course between the sexes ; for you must know, 



