Page:Kwaidan; Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Hearn - 1904.djvu/191

 The accent, the attitude, the voice, all fill me with repulsion unutterable,—shock me with a new sensation of formidable vulgarity. I want to cry out loud, &quot;You have no right to sing that song!&quot; For I have heard it sung by the lips of the dearest and fairest being in my little world;—and that this rude, coarse man should dare to sing it vexes me like a mockery,—angers me like an insolence. But only for a moment! … With the utterance of the syllables &quot;to-day,&quot; that deep, grim voice suddenly breaks into a quivering tenderness indescribable;—then, marvelously changing, it mellows into tones sonorous and rich as the bass of a great organ,—while a sensation unlike anything ever felt before takes me by the throat. … What witchcraft has he learned? what secret has he found—this scowling man of the road? … Oh! is there anybody else in the whole world who can sing like that? … And the form of the singer flickers and dims;—and the house, and the lawn, and all visible shapes of things tremble and swim before me. Yet instinctively I fear that man;—I almost hate him; and I feel myself flushing with anger and shame because of his power to move me thus. …

&quot;He made you cry,&quot; Robert 167