“If you will, I shall be your debtor.”
“I cannot sing it.”
“Excuse me,” he said, “but I did not ask you to.”
It was a tenor song. Bertha played the prelude, but was astonished when she struck the first note of the vocal score to hear the Count’s voice take up the melody. He had a pure, sweet voice, and sang with great power and expression.
“It is a beautiful song; do you not think so?” he asked.
“Very,” was her laconic reply.
“Now, will you not sing for me one of those English ballads?”
Bertha had enjoyed the Count’s song, and she felt it would be discourteous to refuse under the circumstances.
The piece was a solo, but when she had sung several lines the Count joined in, singing in English.
“Encore! Encore!!” he cried, and they sang the second stanza together.