Page:An Unfinished Song.djvu/53

48 I blushed and invited him to enter the house.

"Go first and I will follow you," was his reply. "Do you remember you have promised to sing to-night?"

We went upstairs. My brother-in-law had not returned home, and letting my sister know through a servant that Mr. Roy had come, I entered the drawing-room with him.

He urged me to take my place at the piano and sing. "Please do sing," he said, "the song I love, 'Oh, mellow night with moonlight softly shining.'"

But I decided since this was a song that appealed to the night, it might better be sung later in the evening. He left the matter to my choice, selecting, however, another of his favourites.

"Sing 'Sweet Bird of Beauty'; you know the poem, I suppose?"

And then he recited the words,