There was a stir. Euphrosyne was going to sing with her sister. They
swept by Lothair in their progress to the instrument, like the passage
of sultanas to some kiosk on the Bosporus. It seemed to him that he had
never beheld any thing so resplendent. The air was perfumed by their
movement and the rustling of their wondrous robes. “They must be of the
Aryan race,” thought Lothair, “though not of the Phidian type.” They
sang a Greek air, and their sweet and touching voices blended with
exquisite harmony. Every one was silent in the room, because every one
was entranced. Then they gave their friends some patriotic lay which
required chorus, the sisters, in turn, singing a stanza. Mr. Phoebus
arranged the chorus in a moment, and there clustered round the piano
al number of gentlemen almost as good-looking and as picturesque as
himself. Then, while Madame Phoebus was singing, Euphrosyne suddenly,
and with quickness, moved away and approached Theodora, and whispered
something to her, but Theodora slightly shook her head, and seemed to
decline.
Euphrosyne regained the piano, whispered something to Colonel Campian,
who was one of the chorus, and then commenced her own part. Colonel
Campian crossed the room and spoke to Theodora, who instantly, without
the slightest demur, joined her friends. Lothair felt agitated, as
he could not doubt Theodora was going to sing. And so it was; when
Euphrosyne had finished, and the chorus she had inspired had died away,
there rose a deep contralto sound, which, though without effort, seemed
to Lothair the most thrilling tone he had ever listened to. Deeper and
richer, and richer and deeper, it seemed to become, as it wound with
exquisite facility through a symphony of delicious sound, until it ended
in a passionate burst, which made Lothair’s heart beat so tumultuously
that for a moment he thought he should be overpowered.
“I never heard any thing so fine in my life,” said Lothair to the French
philosopher.
“Ah! if you had heard that woman sing the Marseillaise, as I did once,
to three thousand people, then you would know what was fine. Not one of
us who would not have died on the spot for her!”
The concert was over. The Princess of Tivoli had risen to say farewell.
She stood apart with Theodora, holding both her hands, and speaking with
earnestness. Then she pressed her lips to Theodora’s forehead, and said,
“Adieu, my best beloved; the spring will return.”
The princess had disappeared, and Madame Phoebus came up to say
good-night to her hostess.
“It is such a delicious night,” said Theodora, “that I have ordered our
strawberries-and-cream on the terrace. You must not go.”
And so she invited them all to the terrace. There was not a breath
of air, the garden was flooded with moonlight, in which the fountain
glittered, and the atmosphere was as sweet as it was warm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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