The Dance
- There are some grand rooms on the Donnithorne estate, but the dance is being held in one of the grandest: the entrance hall. There are "stucco angels, trumpets, and flower-wreaths on the lofty ceiling, and great medallions of miscellaneous heroes on the walls, alternating with statues in niches" (26.1).
- Seth isn't in the best of spirits, because Dinah isn't anywhere in sight. He and Lisbeth return home, but Adam decides to join this last stage of the festivities.
- Adam enters the great, big, swanked-out hall in the company of the Poysers. And for once, the gentry and the townsfolk have no problem mixing and mingling. Mr. Irwine's sister dances with a burly farmer, Lydia Donnithorne is paired off with Mr. Poyser, and, eventually, Arthur is paired off with Hetty.
- When Arthur asks Hetty for a dance, Hetty struggles "between the desire for him to notice her and the dread lest she should betray the desire to others" (26.23). But they dance well enough anyway.
- A little later, Hetty is paired off with Adam. He sweeps Hetty along, dreaming of their life together—until Totty gets into the picture, shoots her hand out, and knocks something off Hetty's neck.
- What is that "something," you may ask. It's a fancy locket, with "dark and light locks of hair under it" (26.34). Where'd Hetty get a thing like that? Hetty seems not to like this subject, so Adam is left to form all sorts of conjectures about how "Hetty, fond of finery as she was, might have bought the thing herself" (26.41).
- While Adam comforts himself with these thoughts, Arthur and Hetty are forming plans for a new meeting.
- The dance is over; the Poysers and Hetty are heading home. Mr. Poyser, happy with his day, shares the following remarks with our favorite locket-wearer: "It'll serve you to talk on, Hetty, when you're an old woman—how you danced wi' th' young squire the day he came o' age" (26.48).
- As if dancing is all Hetty wanted from Arthur! Or all Hetty has done with Arthur, for that matter.