Alaric knew that as soon as he agreed to dance with one person, he would have to agree to the others who would ask him to—and he was right. Dance after dance, ladies after ladies—and even a gentleman at some point—asked for some time alone with him, to hold his hand, to sway to the music with. It soon became clear to him that he had to do something about it, lest he would be dancing all night; so, when the King Alagor was announced and entered the hall—which made everyone stop to pay their respects—he took it as an opportunity to escape.
It wasn’t the most honorable thing Alaric had done, but he managed to escape by hiding behind one of the curtains. By the time Alagor told everyone to continue with the festivities, Alaric’s supposed dancing partner was confused as to where he had gone.
