Fathers and sons -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction; Princes -- Fiction; Refugees -- Fiction
It was rather late when it arrived. People in Munich are not late for
the opera if it can be helped, and the coachman drove up hurriedly. The
green and silver footman leaped to the ground and opened the carriage
door almost before it stopped. The Chancellor got out looking less
genial than usual because he was afraid that he might lose some of the
overture. A rosy-cheeked girl in a white frock was with him and she was
evidently trying to soothe him.
"I do not think we are really late, Father," she said. "Don't feel
cross, dear. It will spoil the music for you."
This was not a time in which a man's attention could be attracted
quietly. Marco ran to get the ticket which would give him a place among
the rows of young soldiers, artists, male and female students, and
musicians who were willing to stand four or five deep throughout the
performance of even the longest opera. He knew that, unless they were in
one of the few boxes which belonged only to the court, the Chancellor
and his rosy-cheeked daughter would be in the best seats in the front
curve of the balcony which were the most desirable of the house. He soon
saw them. They had secured the central places directly below the large
royal box where two quiet princesses and their attendants were already
seated.
When he found he was not too late to hear the overture, the Chancellor's
face become more genial than ever. He settled himself down to an evening
of enjoyment and evidently forgot everything else in the world. Marco
did not lose sight of him. When the audience went out between acts to
promenade in the corridors, he might go also and there might be a chance
to pass near to him in the crowd. He watched him closely. Sometimes his
fine old face saddened at the beautiful woe of the music, sometimes it
looked enraptured, and it was always evident that every note reached his
soul.
The pretty daughter who sat beside him was attentive but not so
enthralled. After the first act two glittering young officers appeared
and made elegant and low bows, drawing their heels together as they
kissed her hand. They looked sorry when they were obliged to return to
their seats again.
After the second act the Chancellor sat for a few minutes as if he were
in a dream. The people in the seats near him began to rise from their
seats and file out into the corridors. The young officers were to be
seen rising also. The rosy daughter leaned forward and touched her
father's arm gently.
"She wants him to take her out," Marco thought. "He will take her
because he is good-natured."
He saw him recall himself from his dream with a smile and then he rose
and, after helping to arrange a silvery blue scarf round the girl's
shoulders, gave her his arm just as Marco skipped out of his fourth-row
standing-place.
It was a rather warm night and the corridors were full. By the time
Marco had reached the balcony floor, the pair had issued from the little
door and were temporarily lost in the moving numbers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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