Katerína Petróvna did actually play valses and the écossaise , and dancing began in which Nikoláy still further captivated the provincial society by his agility. His particularly free manner of dancing even surprised them all. Nikoláy was himself rather surprised at the way he danced that evening. He had never danced like that in Moscow and would even have considered such a very free and easy manner improper and in bad form, but here he felt it incumbent on him to astonish them all by something unusual, something they would have to accept as the regular thing in the capital though new to them in the provinces.