Saxe smiled in answer to the smile that was in Margaret’s eyes as her glance met his. Then he turned once again to the piano. The rhythm of the miser’s song of gold rang out. But now, the player touched the harsh measures with a certain grateful gentleness. In and over and about the grim chords, he wove daintier harmonies, lingered often for cadences of passion, wrought a counterpoint of basic love, set above all an exquisite melody, the unison of two hearts. The improvisation welled to a chorale of magnificent praise for that lonely and unhappy man to whose morbid intrigue the player owed not merely a fortune, but something infinitely more—the meeting and the winning of the woman he loved.
“It’s the only tune I ever cared for,” quoth Billy Walker, complacently.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain.