Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/238



we found ourselves after dinner in the parlor, Hulmar offered me my choice between some concert-music,—a great performance was going on, it appears, in some distant city,—or to hear a song from Reva. I had more than once heard her voice praised, but had not, as yet, found an opportunity of hearing it.

She sat down to an instrument constructed on the same principle as that of Ulmene, but differently arranged. In this,—the instrument chiefly used by those who mainly desired it as an accompaniment to the voice,—the keys were somewhat smaller in diameter than those of a concertina, and were slightly hollowed at the top.

These keys were arranged in groups of seven. Close around a central key, that which gave the simple note, were six others, not giving single notes, but the six most usual chords to that central note. The key-board was arranged for several octaves of the chromatic scale, each note being tuned true. A simple adjustment enabled. the player, before beginning, to set the instrument to any desired tone as key-note.

By means of a sort of pointed thimble worn on the