Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-08-07


THEY SANG TOGETHER
took it up and sang to it Scilian
love.song; she took it from him and
sang Venetian barcarolle and star
nelli; then they sang together, and
their clear, youthful voices blent har-
moniously. People passing on the
canal stopped their gondolas under the
balcony to listen; some Venetian pro-
fessional musicians in boat applaudod.
Damer sat in the shadow and listened,
and looked at them. Music said little
or nothing to him: he had scarcely any
comprehension OF it; but something in
the sound of those blended voices
touched chord in his nature-made
him feel vaguely sad, rcstlessly de-
sirous, foolishly irritated. The light
fell on the handsome head of Andrcis,
on the carnations at the lady's throat,
on the rings on their hands which
touched as they took the mandolin one
! from the other; behind them was the
open easement, the balcony with it's
white spir@a; the lighted frontage of
| palace on the opposite side of the
canal. As they ceased to sing the pco-
pie below on the water applaudcd
again, and cried: "Brava, bravo! brava!"
prince Andreis is poet" said Da-
mer, with harsh tone in his voice
"Who never wrote verse" said An
drcis, as he handed y cup Of coffee TO
! his hostGss
Through the closed windows the
sounds of chorus sung by the strolling
! singers below came family and mufilcd
/ into the room; the lamplight shone on
the white spray of the spirna, which
looked like 4 crystal OF snow
| IF ! had found the opals | should
have been inspired by Them" he
added Gas it is, ara dumb and I'M
happy"
| veronica Laranigra smiled.
IF you are dumb, so was Orphcus"
"And if you are unhappy" added
Damer, "you are only so out of wanton-
ness because the gods have given you
too many gifts"
"Or because he has stolen piece of
spirpa, said Veronica.
81 may keep my theft?" asked An
dreis.
Yes. For you brought back the
opals, though you did not find them"
Soon after they took their leave Of
her and went down to the waiting gon-
dola. The boatload of musicians had
drifted upwards towards Rialto, the
coiors of their paper lanthorns glowing
through the dark. There was no
moon. They did not speak to each
other in the few minutes which
carried them to their hotel. When
they reached it they parted with u brief
good night. Neither asked the other
what his impressions of the evening
had been.
When the young Sicilian prince,
Lionello Andreis, head of an ancient
Hispano Italian family, had met with q
hunting accident and the tuslIs of an
old boar had brought him near to death,
an English surgeon, by name Frederic
Damor, who was then in Palermo, did
for him what none of the Italian sur
geons dared to do, and, SO far as the
phrase can ever be correct of human
action, saved his life. A year had
passed since then; the splendid vitality
of the Sicilian had returned to all its
natural vigor; he was only twenty-four
years of age and naturally strong as a
young oak in the woods of Etna. |
But he had mother who loved |
hlm, and was anxious; she begged
the Englishman to remain awhile |
near him; the Sicilian laughed but
submitted; he and Damer had tray-
eled together during several months, |
and were now about in another month to |
part company; the Sicilian to return to |
his own people, the Englshman to oc-
cupy chair of physiology in town of |
northern Europe. Their lives had been |
briefly united by accident and would |
have parted in peace; a collar of opals |
was by chance washed up amongst the
flags and burdocks of Torcello and the |
shape of their fate was altered.
Damer was the son of a country ply
stefan, but his father had been poor,
the family numerous, and he, third |
son, had been sent out into the world |
with only his education as his capital. |
He practiced surgery to live; he prac-
ticed physiology to reach through it
that power and celebrity for which his
nature craved and his mental capacity
fitted him. But at every step his mar
row means CALLED and fretted him, and
he had been demonstrators, an as
sistant, professor in schools, when his
vast ability and relentless will fitted him
for the position of Helmholtz or Viz
chow in that new priesthood which had
arisen to claim the rule of mankind,