"O, no! I never recite poetry, and I only recall a stanza here and there."
"But, please, repeat what you know," pleaded Wanda, in her most irresistible tone.
"There was a time when your wish was my law, but now--"
"Now I no longer command; I beg and entreat."
"I may yield to your entreaties if you will first recite one of your favorite poems to me," replied Waldemar.
"I know a ballad upon Vineta by Finelius. I will repeat a few stanzas." And Wanda recited, with fine expression and deep feeling, these lines from a well-known ballad:
"On Easter-morn, when the jubilant bells
Ring out 'Our Lord is risen!'
They call forth an echo loud and long
From church-spires which the waves imprison.