Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/434

444 been endured before it received an answer from the then unknown divinity?———

I felt, when in the evening I returned to Naples, as if I had been in a bath of earnest, purifying thought. Life had assumed an aspect of light which gave me the sense of being able to talk with my summer-daughter in such a manner as would make all right again. In what way I did not exactly know; but clear and straightforward things must be, and whether her engagement was by that means brought to a close or still more firmly bound, the relationship must still remain pure and good. Ah! I have often felt and believed so, and I have acted accordingly, but——

Elsa had left her bed. She was sitting at the piano and playing a fantasia to herself, apparently oblivious of any other person being near her. I went out upon the balcony from the drawing room, and felt a peculiar pleasure in listening to her variations on a few notes, the fervor and sweetness of which went to my heart, and which were ever repeated, always with a new expression. I felt that they proceeded from her own heart, and I anticipated every thing that was good from them. The dusk of evening increased, the lamps were lighted on Villa Reale, the fire-streams of Vesuvius gleamed still red, though almost immovable, through the increasing darkness. Still she continued playing on, modulating the same sweet, heartfelt, melancholy notes.

“When she has finished,” I said to myself, “I will call her here and we will have some talk!”

I was then surprised by the sound of hasty steps, and a tall figure stood beside me.