"Herr H. giver sig den Ære at indbyde Herr
—-til en soirée dansante. Tirsdagen den——

"Kol. 7."

Which, being interpreted, is:
"Mr. H. gives himself the honour to
invite, &c. &c.

"Seven o'clock."

At the time appointed I arrived at my
friend's house, for I purposely came early in
order to be able to scrutinise the company.
And here, at the outset, I must remark that I
was extremely taken with the Norwegian ladies
—especially the young ladies. Not that they
were beautiful; our English girls far surpass
their Norwegian sisters in respect of good looks.
But in the first place I refer to their " get-up,"
of which, for my lady readers, I will endeavour
to give a true, though, I fear, not a scientific
description. Nearly all of them were dressed
in muslin, white or coloured, with appropriate
head-dresses of flowers or ribbons. There was
scarcely an expensive dress in the whole room.
"Sensible girls!" I soliloquised. " I wonder
what it would cost my sisters to turn out for a
ball like this? I should like some of our English
young ladies to be here, to take a lesson in dress.
Here is a good effect produced for a very little
money." But here my reflections were directed
into another vein by a bevy of young men,
students, officers, and so forth, who came in hat in
hand. What on earth do they bring their hats into
a ball-room for? Ah! perhaps they are afraid of
losing them. Not a bad idea! But I wonder
what they will do with them when the dancing
begins? Surely not put them on? However,
after having paid their respects to the host, they
proceeded carefully to place them in out-of-the-
way corners, while others, who did not, I
suppose, mean dancing, kept theirs in hand for the
rest of the evening.

Just then the folding-doors of an adjacent
room were thrown open, and supper was
announced.

Another surprise for me. What! Supper
before dancing! So it was. And an excellent
plan, too, I'm inclined to think. For, don't you,
young ladies, always enter into the spirit of
dancing all the more, after you have had a little
sip of iced champagne? Don't you, young
gentlemen, often then first get rid of that
shyness and reserve which are so peculiar to you?
You know you do.

The supper was an elegant affair; but a
standing-up one, as is universally the case in
Norway. As I had only just dined, I became a
passive spectator. I observed that the gentlemen,
as soon as they had handed their partners in, left
them to shift for themselves, while they looked
after number one. But the dear creatures seemed
quite used to such treatment. There were no
sweets on the table; all the dishes were savoury
dishes. (By the way, Russian peas seemed very
popular.) But in another little room were laid
out ices, jellies, creams, cakes, flanked by
numberless bottles of champagne. The ladies had
the first entrée into the Chamber of Sweets, and
it was not till they turned out, that we turned in.

The band now began to strike up in the ballroom:
a signal for the gentlemen to adjourn
thither.

"You dance?" said my host.

"Oh yes; certainly!"

"Come, then. I'll introduce you to that girl
in pink; she is dying to dance with an Englishman."

She was an uncommonly charming girl, the
daughter of a pastor in the Loffoten Isles, and
had never been in Christiania before. She
rejoiced in the name of Katinka. I naturally
thought she might be shy, as this was the
first time she had ever been in a town. Not a
bit of it! She had plenty to say for herself; could
talk English very well, though she had never
heard it spoken by an Englishman before; and
was thoroughly well up in English literature.

I never danced so much, nor enjoyed an evening
so much, as I did this evening, my first in
Northern Europe. It is quite impossible to
help liking the young ladies. They are so
simple, unreserved, conversational, well
informed, and un-coquettish.

Dancing was kept up with spirit till twelve,
when another edition of supper on a minor scale
made its appearance.

"Well! And what do you think of us in this
out-of-the-way country?" said my friend, who
prevailed on me to stay behind and smoke a cigar
after his guests had gone.

"Think! I think I would like to cut the
Temple, and come and live here for good and
all!""

He laughed, and said, as I took my leave,

"By the way, I forgot to tell you I have been
requested to bring you with me to-morrow to a
grand dinner-party. You'll see something new
there, if I mistake not. God Nat!"

After bathing next morning in the Fjord,
in close proximity to his Majesty Carl John the
Fifteenth—when I had an opportunity of seeing
rather more than one usually sees of royalty—I
repaired to my friend's house, to be taken out to
dinner.

The Statsraad W. lived during the summer in
a villa about half a mile from town. Indeed,
nearly all the merchants and wealthier people
reside in the country during the summer months.
These villas, which I noticed as presenting a
very picturesque effect, on sailing up the Fjord,
are generally built of wood, and painted either a
pale pink, white, or yellow. From the second
or third stories there are balconies, and on the
ground floor there is a verandah, connected by
glass doors with the house. One never sees a
carpet during the summer, and not usually even
in the winter. The floors are painted and
varnished, and convey to the mind an assurance of
coolness and absence of dust: desirable advantages
in a climate which, for a short time in the
year, resembles that of India.

There were, perhaps, a hundred and fifty
guests assembled when we entered. I wondered
how we were all going to be accommodated.

"I dare say you do not have these sort of
dinner-parties in England," said a young lady to