"Well, if I can, you shall have one more, but I shall want a rest afterwards, as it fatigues me more than you have any idea of."
He whispered something to Renée, and she at once rose and tuned up her violin. Placing the piece of music in front of her, she began playing the prelude to 'En Sourdine' by Tellam. Then suddenly the piano took up the refrain.
Have you ever read Dumas Fils' 'La Dame aux Camelias'? If you have you will understand the piece. You remember where Marguerite has been forsaken by her lover owing to the pressure put on him by his good but mistaken father. Well, this piece reproduces the scene, and you can positively hear, and even feel the poor girl sobbing her heart out. And then comes the delightful refrain, and finally the exultant triumph of Love. Never was melody more rapturously poured forth. The guests hung on the refrain, and at the conclusion Madame Villebois was silently weeping.
"I propose," said Marcel, unconsciously imitating the speaker of the House of Commons on the conclusion of Sheridan's great speech during the debate on Warren Hastings, "that we do now adjourn to the smoking room to recover from the sublime effects of Delapine's and Renée's melodies."
The professor went to his room to obtain his much needed rest on the sofa, while the ladies chatted together.
"Dear ladies," said Marcel, when they had sat down, "what Tennyson wrote in the Chorus Song of the 'Lotus Eaters' is quite appropriate to what we have just heard:—
"There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies."