Mrs. French said: "Is not that very fine, Penloe? I never heard that thought expressed before. It is new to me."
Dr. Finch, who was a well educated young dentist, said: "That thought, though old to the people of the Orient, is just beginning to come to the front in the literature of the West. I was very much gratified in listening to Penloe."
Saunders, the merchant, laughed and said: "If it had been me sitting at the gate, instead of Shuka, I would have got mad in ten minutes and gone home, if the guards had treated me in that manner."
It began to get a little cool on the porch and the company were invited into the large double parlors to play some games. After enjoying a variety of games for an hour, it was proposed to have some music. The Hernes had a fine-toned piano, and it was always kept in tune. Several young gentlemen asked Miss Grace Nettleton for a song, and all the other members of the company joined in the request. Miss Nettleton said she would like some one to play the accompaniment, and Prof. French said: "I will play for you."
As Miss Grace Nettleton was a young lady of romantic turn of mind and very fond of reading love stories and singing love songs, she selected one to sing according to her taste, from which we give the following verse:
"Sitting on the garden gate,
Where the little butterfly reposes,
Now I hate to tell, but then I must,
'Twas love among the roses."
Some of the young people being delighted with that sentimental song, called for another, for they could not think of her taking her seat after singing only one; so she very kindly sang another. In a very soft, sweet voice, she sang a song containing the following verse:
"I love to think of thee, when evening closes,
Over landscapes bright and fair,
I love to think of thee when earth reposes,
To calm a grief which none can share.
When every eyelid hovers
When every heart but mine is free,
'Tis then, O then, I love to think of thee."
If the true feeling of one or two young gentlemen present could be told, they certainly would like to have had Miss Grace Nettleton think of them in that way. After receiving many compliments from the company, the young lady took her seat. Mrs. French, who was a professional musician like her husband, was called for and sang with fine effect, "I am dreaming, yes I am dreaming, the happy hours away," etc, etc. Her fine cultivated voice was much appreciated by the company and they were eager to have Mrs. French sing again, but she wished to save her voice, and got her husband to sing "Beautiful Isle of the Sea." His fine baritone voice was a great treat to the guests, for it was seldom such talent as that of himself and wife was heard in the parlors of Orangeville.
Stella was called for and Professor French played the accompaniment, while she in a very sweet and feeling voice sang, "Hark! I Hear an Angel Sing." As her graceful form stood beside the instrument with her face and eyes turned a little upwards, she seemed to be lost to everything mundane, and when she sang those soul-melting words that she heard the angel sing, the effect was complete, for it seemed to those present as if it was the voice of an angel singing those words and not that of a human being.