But no human boy can withstand for an infinity of time an infinity of
new emotions--however delectable. At the end of the second hour Cyrus'
head was resting against his father's arm, and his eyes were closed.
But in his sleep he heard the music. In his dreams came the voice of
the Lovely Lady. His eyes, only, were closed. In his ears, and to his
weary but enchanted brain came all except the actual vision. When his
father woke him from this gentle sleep the great curtain was slowly
descending at the end of the final act. Music filled the air,--volumes
and volumes of it. Countless people were on the stage; kings and
queens, lords and ladies, peasants and soldiers, all singing their
loudest. So many noisy people Cyrus had never heard. And in the center
among the kings and queens was the Lovely Lady, also singing.
A few moments later, after the great curtain had descended, a half
dozen of the principal singers came filing out in front of it, holding
hands, and bowing and smiling to the audience. The Lovely Lady received
heaps of flowers. And her eyes, as she bowed and smiled, rested for a
moment on Cyrus himself.
The next day, as to weather, was disappointing. The cold, damp air,
the leaden sky and the flurries of snow were a surprise to Cyrus,
as it was just plain, country weather, and bad at that. It seemed
out of place in a fine, big city. And he was again surprised, in the
afternoon, when his father took him into Central Park. He considered
it a waste of time, when so much of the city had not been seen. They
walked along the borders of a lake, through some woods, then followed
a path up a little hill. And, two or three times, when they came to
other paths, his father took from his pocket the French letter he had
received at home, and seemed to study it as if it told him where to go.
On one of these halts the boy protested.
"Why do we come here, father? We can see trees at home."
"Yes, you are right, Cyrus. But we go only a little further." And when
they came to a rustic bench in a secluded spot, quite hidden among
trees and shrubs, Dr. Alton seated himself.
"Are you tired?" Cyrus asked. Dr. Alton looked at his watch. "No, I am
not tired."
"Then let's go back to the city, and be seeing things."
His father laid a hand on his shoulder and patted it.
"There is no hurry. We can wait a minute. It is rather pleasant here,
don't you think?" Then he looked along the path in both directions as
if expecting something. Cyrus was too polite to say what he really
thought, so he merely scowled and swung his legs, hitting the toe
of one foot against the heel of the other. Meanwhile his father
kept looking along the path by which they had come as if expecting
something.
And something came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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