She tried to turn her attention back to the entertainment, but the coarse
words hung in her memory like an evil cloud. They recalled Green's brief
condemnation of the previous evening. Evidently his point of view was the
same. He regarded the whole social system as evil. Had not the squire
told her that he wanted to reform the world?
The evening wore on, and with unfaltering resource Dick Green kept the
interest of his audience from flagging. He chose his assistants with
insight and skill, and every item on his program scored a success. His
banjo was in almost continuous demand throughout, but finally, just at
the end, he laid it aside.
He took something from his pocket; what it was Juliet could not see, but
she caught the gleam of metal in the lamp-light, and in a moment a great
buzz of pleasure spread through the crowd. And then it began--such music
as she had never dreamed of--such music as surely was never fluted save
from the pipes of Pan. A long, sweet, thrilling note like the call of a
nightingale, starting far away, drawing swiftly nearer, nearer, till she
felt as if it ended against her heart, and then all the joy of spring, of
youth, of hope, poured forth in an amazing ecstasy of silver
sound--showers of fairy notes like the dancing of tiny feet or the
lightest patter of summer rain that ever fell upon opening leaves--and
the gold-flecked sunshine that shimmered in the crystal dawning of a day
new-born. Afterwards there came the sound of waterfalls and laughing
streams and the calling of fairy voices, the tinkle of fairy laughter,
and then the sea and shoaling water--shoaling water--breaking in a
million sparkles over the rocks of an enchanted strand!
And it was to her alone that that wonder-music spoke. She and he were
wandering alone together along that fairy shore where every sea-shell
gleamed like pearl and every wave broke iridescent at their feet. The sun
shone in the sky for them alone, and the caves were mystic palaces of
delight that awaited their coming. And once it seemed to her that he drew
her close, and she felt his kisses on her lips....
Ah, surely this was the midsummer madness of which they had spoken! It
was a vision that could not last, but the wonder of it--ah, the wonder of
it!--she would carry for ever in her heart.
It ended at length, but so softly, so tenderly, that, spellbound, she
never knew when lingering sound became enduring silence. She awoke as it
were from a long dream and knew that her heart was beating with a wild
and poignant longing that was pain. Then there arose a great shouting,
and instinctively she laid her hand on Fielding's arm and drew him away.
"Had enough?" he asked.
She nodded. Somehow for the moment she could find no words. She had a
feeling as of unshed tears at her throat. Ah, what had moved him to play
to her like that? And why did it hurt her so?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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