Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/20

 shock my nerves had just received.

"As he came on, some few persons tried to cheer him by clapping their hands, but a low murmur of disapproval, followed by a slight hissing sound, stopped these feeble attempts at once. He seemed scornfully indifferent to both sounds. He sat listlessly down, like a person worn out by fever, but, as one of the musical reporters stated, the fire of art began all at once to glow within his eyes. He cast a sidelong glance on the audience, a searching look full of love and of thankfulness.

"Then he began to play, not as if his task were a weary one, but as if he were pouring out his heavily-laden soul; and the music sounded like the warbling of a bird which, in its attempt to captivate its mate, pants forth its floods of rapture, resolved either to conquer or to die in profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

"It is needless to say that I was thoroughly overcome, whilst the whole crowd was thrilled by the sweet sadness of his song.

"The piece finished, I hurried out—frankly, in the hope of meeting him. Whilst he had been