Three of these peasants had appeared at the padrona’s doorway, by a sort of magic.  They bowed and smiled, and commenced to play.  Every one sprang up.  “Dance,” cried they all, and flew for their partners.  Mae found herself in the midst of the crowd, and having the most willing and nimble of feet, she soon toned and coaxed the fashionable waltz on which she had started into accord with the more elastic footsteps of her companion.  There was something in the serpentine, winding and unwinding motion, the coaxingness of the steps, that was deliciously intoxicating to Mae.  The color came to her cheeks, the smile played around her lips, and when she paused to breathe, she found the Italians showing their white teeth, and clapping their brown hands in her honor, while the tallest musician gazed at her from the dark doorway, with the rapt reverence he gave to all things beautiful and thrilling.  She was a new song to him.

“The Signorina is the veriest Italian of us all,” cried Lisetta.

“She honors our Italy,” called Mae’s last partner.

“Her feet are those of a chamois,” said one from the north.

“Nay, she flies,” replied another.

They all spoke in their earnest manner, and the praises, that fall in fulsome flattery in English, were delicate and stimulating as they slid in soft Italian from their full, red lips.  Mae tossed her head carelessly, but she sipped the praises and found them sweet.

“Now for the Tarantella,” said the padrona, so Lisetta shook her tambourine wildly, and the very prettiest girl of them all, and a big, brown boy (happy fellow!) began that coquettish bit of witchery.  The pretty girl tripped around and around and wreathed her arms over her head, and the boy knelt appealingly and sprang up passionately again and again, until the clock struck ten, and the party broke up.  Mae shook hands with a new friend.  He was a stone-cutter, and was soon to be married, and he poured out all his plans and hopes into her sympathetic ears, and told of his pretty bride to be, and of her dowry.  Mae, in turn, sent her love to the happy bride, and took a charm from her watch-chain to go with it, a tiny silver boat, and she sent it with a hope that some day they might both sail over to America.  At which the bridegroom shook his head very decidedly, and kissed Mae’s hand and bowed himself out.  Then, after she had disrobed her of her borrowed plumes, all the others kissed her hand and bowed themselves out, and Roberto and Giovanni awaked, and got up from the corner, and stood on their heads and hallooed as loud as ever they pleased, and the evening was over, and Lisetta and the padrona and the boys and Mae were alone.

“Oh, oh, oh,” cried Mae, “how perfectly perfect.  Do you always have such good times as this?”

“At home, yes,” replied Lisetta, folding her hands and smiling.  “We have many a play-day on the bay of Naples.”  Then she roused herself:  “Good night, Signorina,” she said, “keep your ears open.”