“Now, Madame, I play you somezing of a American. Ver’ beautiful, it is. Not for violin. For voice, contralto. I sing it to you—on ze G-string, which weep when it sing; weep for lost dreams. It is called ‘Illusion,’ ze song.”
He raised his bow, and at the first bar Io’s heart gave a quick, thick sob within her breast. It was the music which Camilla Van Arsdale had played that night when winds and forest leaves murmured the overtones; when earth and heaven were hushed to hear.
“Oh, Ban!” cried Io’s spirit.
Noiseless and swift, Banneker, answering the call, bent over her. She whispered, softly, passionately, her lips hardly stirring the melody-thrilled air.
“How could I hurt you so! I’m going because I must; because I daren’t stay. You can understand, Ban!”
The music died. “Yes,” said Banneker. Then, “Don’t go, Io!”
“I must. I’ll—I’ll see you before. When we’re ourselves. We can’t talk now. Not with this terrible music in our blood.”
She rose and went forward to thank the player with such a light in her eyes and such a fervor in her words that he mentally added another to his list of conquests.
The party broke up. After that magic music, people wanted to be out of the light and the stir; to carry its pure passion forth into the dark places, to cherish and dream it over again.... Banneker sat before the broad fireplace in the laxity of a still grief. Io was going away from him. For a six-month. For a year. For an eternity. Going away from him, bearing his whole heart with her, as she had left him after the night on the river, left him to the searing memory of that mad, sweet cleavage of her lips to his, the passionate offer of her awakened womanhood in uttermost surrender of life at the roaring gates of death....
Footsteps, light, firm, unhesitant, approached across the broad floor from the hallway. Banneker sat rigid, incredulous, afraid to stir, as the sleeper fears to break the spell of a tenuous and lovely dream, until Io’s voice spoke his name. He would have jumped to his feet, but the strong pressure of her hands on his shoulders restrained him.