And Dickens Danced at Midnight

The candles are low in the sconces
and the fire's embers glow,
the household is long in bedfordshire
and the cricket's on the hearth.
A man won't disappoint his children,
his nieces, or their own:
so I step one-two in the four-beat bar
on the pattern of the carpeted floor;
and when you see me dance the polka
you'll see something rather fine!