"Yes, I told him, or very nearly, that I could not marry him."
"You cannot marry him, you love me.... But why don't you answer. What are you thinking of?"
"Only of you, dear.... Let me kiss you again," and in the embrace he forgot for the moment the inquietude her answer had caused him.
"That is my call," she said. "How am I to sing the Liebestod after all this? How does it begin?"
Ulick sang the opening phrase, and she continued the music for some bars.
"I hope I shall get through it all right. Then," she said, "we shall go home together in the brougham."
At that moment a knock was heard, and Merat entered. "Mademoiselle, you have no time to lose."
The call boy's voice was heard on the stairs, and Evelyn hastened away. Ulick followed, and the first thing he heard when he got on the stage was Tristan's death motive. He listened, not so much to the music itself as to its occult significance regarding Evelyn and himself. And as Isolde's grief changed from wild lament for sensual delight to a resigned and noble prayer, the figure of ecstasy broke with a sound as of wings shaking, and Ulick seemed to witness a soul's transfiguration. He watched it rising in several ascensions, like a lark's flight. For an instant it seemed to float in some divine consummation, then, like the bird, to suddenly quench in the radiance of the sky. The harps wept farewell over the bodies of the lovers, then all was done, and he stood at the wings listening to the applause. She came to him at once, as soon as the curtain was down.
"How did I sing it?"
"As well as ever."