"PAOLO [Reading]. 'Now they two were alone, yet could not speak;
But heard the beating of each other's hearts.
He knew himself a traitor but to stay,
Yet could not stir; she pale and yet more pale
Grew till she could no more, but smiled on him.
Then when he saw that wished smile, he came
Near to her and still near, and trembled; then
Her lips all trembling kissed.'
"FRANCESCA [Drooping towards him]. Ah, Launcelot!
[He kisses her on the lips.]"
[173] Nadeshda Filaretowna von Meck was born in the village of Znamensk, in the government of Smolensk, February 10, 1831. She was thus nine years older than Tschaikowsky. When her husband, an engineer, died, in 1876, she was left with eleven children and a very large fortune, although they had not always been rich. Modeste Tschaikowsky described her as "a proud and energetic woman, of strong convictions, with the mental balance and business capacity of a man; ... a woman who despised all that was petty, common-place, and conventional; ... absolutely free from sentimentality in her relations with others, yet capable of deep feeling, and of being completely carried away by what was lofty and beautiful."
[174] The passages quoted from Tschaikowsky's letters are given in Mrs. Rosa Newmarch's translation.
[175] Translated by Mr. Philip Hale.
[176] In the October before his death Tschaikowsky was busied with the orchestration of his third piano concerto, Op. 75, based on portions of a symphony which he began in May, 1892, but afterwards destroyed.
[177] See page 210 (foot-note).
[178] "Voyvode": in Russian, "a military commander, general, or governor of a province."
[179] The authorship of this story is attributed to the pianist Alexander Siloti, a pupil of Tschaikowsky.