While the duet was being sung, Mina had come in with the papers, the Vaderland and the Dagblad, and Henk was soon absorbed in them, turning over the sheets as noiselessly as possible.
“But, Paul, don’t you want to sing any more?” asked Eline. “Something else; or are you tired?”
“I had rather you sang alone, Eline.”
“Oh no, if you aren’t tired, I should like another duet Really, I think it’s splendid to sing together like that. Would you venture the grand duo in Romeo?”
“Really, Eline, I don’t know it very well yet, and it is so difficult.”
“Oh, you knew it well enough the other day; if only you will sing soft and low, and not force your notes. There—you see, the whole of this passage with your medium register; don’t shout, whatever you do.”
With an anxious look he asked her for a little more advice about the piece, and she told him what to do.
“Come now, will you venture? But don’t shout; that’s frightful, and—if we do break down, what of it?”
“Well, if you like to try, I don’t mind.”
Eline’s face glowed with pleasure, and she played the soft prelude to the grand duo in the fourth act. [[67]]