"And he loved to hear you sing?" said Brandon, in the same voice.
"He used to praise me," said Beatrice, meekly. "His praise used to gratify, but it did not deceive me. I am not conceited, Mr. Wheeler."
"Would you sing for me?" asked Brandon, in accents almost of entreaty, looking at her with an imploring expression.
Beatrice"s head fell. "Not now--not yet--not here," she murmured, with a motion of her hand. "Wait till we pa.s.s beyond this ocean. It seems haunted."
Brandon understood her tone and gesture.
But the weeks pa.s.sed, and the months, and they went over the seas, touching at Mauritius, and afterward at Cape Town, till finally they entered the Atlantic Ocean, and sailed North. During all this time their a.s.sociation was close and continuous. In her presence Brandon softened; the sternness of his features relaxed, and the great purpose of his life grew gradually fainter.
One evening, after they had entered the Atlantic Ocean, they were standing by the stern of the ship looking at the waters, when Brandon repeated his request.
"Would you be willing to sing now?" he asked, gently, and in the same tone of entreaty which he had used before.
Beatrice looked at him for a moment without speaking. Then she raised her face and looked up at the sky, with a deep abstraction in her eyes, as though in thought. Her face, usually colorless, now, in the moonlight, looked like marble; her dark hair hung in peculiar folds over her brow--an arrangement which was antique in its style, and gave her the look of a statue of one of the Muses. Her straight, Grecian features, large eyes, thin lips, and well-rounded chin--all had the same cla.s.sic air, and Brandon, as he looked at her, wondered if she knew how fair she was. She stood for a moment in silence, and then began. It was a marvelous and a memorable epoch in Brandon"s life. The scene around added its inspiration to the voice of the singer. The ocean spread afar away before them till the verge of the horizon seemed to blend sea and sky together. Overhead the dim sky hung, dotted with innumerable stars, prominent among which, not far above the horizon, gleamed that glorious constellation, the Southern Cross. Beatrice, who hesitated for a moment as if to decide upon her song, at last caught her idea from this scene around her, and began one of the most magnificent of Italian compositions:
"I cieli immensi narrano Del grand" Iddio la gloria."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "SHE GAVE HERSELF ENTIRELY UP TO THE JOY OF SONG."]
Her first notes poured forth with a sweetness and fullness that arrested the attention of all on board the ship. It was the first time she had sung, as she afterward said, since Langhetti had left Hong-Kong, and she gave herself entirely up to the joy of song. Her voice, long silent, instead of having been injured by the sorrow through which she had pa.s.sed, was pure, full, marvelous, and thrilling. A glow like some divine inspiration pa.s.sed over the marble beauty of her cla.s.sic features; her eyes themselves seemed to speak of all that glory of which she sang, as the sacred fire of genius flashed from them.
At those wonderful notes, so generous and so penetrating with their sublime meaning, all on board the ship looked and listened with amazement. The hands of the steersman held the wheel listlessly.
Brandon"s own soul was filled with the fullest effects. He stood watching her figure, with its inspired lineaments, and thought of the fabled prodigies of music spoken of in ancient story. He thought of Orpheus hushing all animated nature to calm by the magic of his song.
At last all thoughts of his own left him, and nothing remained but that which the song of Beatrice swept over his spirit.
But Beatrice saw nothing and heard nothing except the scene before her, with its grand inspiration and her own utterance of its praise.
Brandon"s own soul was more and more overcome; the divine voice thrilled over his heart; he shuddered and uttered a low sigh of rapture.
"My G.o.d!" he exclaimed as she ended; "I never before heard any thing like this. I never dreamed of such a thing. Is there on earth another such a voice as yours? Will I ever again hear any thing like it? Your song is like a voice from those heavens of which you sing. It is a new revelation."
He poured forth these words with pa.s.sionate impetuosity. Beatrice smiled.
"Langhetti used to praise me," she simply rejoined.
"You terrify me," said he.
"Why?" asked Beatrice, in wonder.
"Because your song works upon me like a spell, and all my soul sinks away, and all my will is weakened to nothingness."
Beatrice looked at him with a mournful smile. "Then you have the true pa.s.sion for music," she said, "if this be so. For my part it is the joy of my life, and I hope to give up all my life to it."
"Do you expect to see Langhetti when you reach England?" asked Brandon, abruptly.
"I hope so," said she, musingly.
CHAPTER XI.
THE IMPROVISATORE.
The character of Beatrice unfolded more and more every day, and every new development excited the wonder of Brandon.
She said once that music was to her like the breath of life, and indeed it seemed to be; for now, since Brandon had witnessed her powers, he noticed how all her thoughts took a coloring from this. What most surprised him was her profound acquirements in the more difficult branches of the art. It was not merely the case of a great natural gift of voice. Her whole soul seemed imbued with those subtle influences which music can most of all bestow. Her whole life seemed to have been pa.s.sed in one long intercourse with the greatest works of the greatest masters. All their works were perfectly well known to her. A marvelous memory enabled her to have their choicest productions at command; and Brandon, who in the early part of his life had received a careful musical education, knew enough about it to estimate rightly the full extent of the genius of his companion, and to be astonished thereat.
Her mind was also full of stories about the lives, acts, and words of the great masters. For her they formed the only world with which she cared to be acquainted, and the only heroes whom she had power to admire. All this flowed from one profound central feeling--namely, a deep and all-absorbing love of this most divine art. To her it was more than art. It was a new faculty to him who possessed it. It was the highest power of utterance--such utterance as belongs to the angels; such utterance as, when possessed by man, raises him almost to an equality with them.
Brandon found out every day some new power in her genius. Now her voice was unloosed from the bonds which she had placed upon it. She sang, she said, because it was better than talking. Words were weak--song was all expression. Nor was it enough for her to take the compositions of others. Those were infinitely better, she said, than any thing which she could produce; but each one must have his own native expression; and there were times when she had to sing from herself. To Brandon this seemed the most amazing of her powers. In Italy the power of improvisation is not uncommon, and Englishmen generally imagine that this is on account of some peculiar quality of the Italian language.
This is not the case. One can improvise in any language; and Brandon found that Beatrice could do this with the English.
"It is not wonderful," said she, in answer to his expression of astonishment, "it is not even difficult. There is an art in doing this, but, when you once know it, you find no trouble. It is rhythmic prose in a series of lines. Each line must contain a thought. Langhetti found no difficulty in making rhyming lines, but rhymes are not necessary. This rhythmic prose is as poetic as any thing can be. All the hymns of the Greek Church are written on this principle. So are the Te Deum and the Gloria. So were all the ancient Jewish psalms. The Jews improvised. I suppose Deborah"s song, and perhaps Miriam"s, are of this order."
"And you think the art can be learned by every one?"
"No, not by every one. One must have a quick and vivid imagination, and natural fluency--but these are all. Genius makes all the difference between what is good and what is bad. Sometimes you have a song of Miriam that lives while the world lasts, sometimes a poor little song like one of mine."
"Sing to me about music," said Brandon, suddenly.
Beatrice immediately began an improvisation. But the music to which she sang was lofty and impressive, and the marvelous sweetness of her voice produced an indescribable effect. And again, as always when she sang, the fashion of her face was changed, and she became transfigured before his eyes. It was the same rhythmic prose of which she had been speaking, sung according to the mode in which the Gloria is chanted, and divided into bars of equal time.
Brandon, as always, yielded to the spell of her song. To him it was an incantation. Her own strains varied to express the changing sentiment, and at last, as the song ended, it seemed to die away in melodious melancholy, like the dying strain of the fabled swan.
"Sing on!" he exclaimed, fervently; "I would wish to stand and hear your voice forever."
A smile of ineffable sweetness came over her face. She looked at him, and said nothing. Brandon bowed his head, and stood in silence.
Thus ended many of their interviews. Slowly and steadily this young girl gained over him an ascendency which he felt hourly, and which was so strong that he did not even struggle against it. Her marvelous genius, so subtle, so delicate, yet so inventive and quick, amazed him. If he spoke of this, she attributed every thing to Langhetti. "Could you but see him," she would say, "I should seem like nothing!"
"Has he such a voice?"
"Oh! he has no voice at all. It is his soul," she would reply. "He speaks through the violin. But he taught me all that I know. He said my voice was G.o.d"s gift. He had a strange theory that the language of heaven and of the angels was music, and that he who loved it best on earth made his life and his thoughts most heavenly."
"You must have been fond of such a man."
"Very," said Beatrice, with the utmost simplicity. "Oh, I loved him so dearly!"
But in this confession, so artlessly made, Brandon saw only a love that was filial or sisterly. "He was the first one," said Beatrice, "who showed me the true meaning of life. He exalted his art above all other arts, and always maintained that it was the purest and best thing which the world possessed. This consoled him for exile, poverty, and sorrow of many kinds."
"Was he married?"
Beatrice looked at Brandon with a singular smile. "Married! Langhetti married! Pardon me; but the idea of Langhetti in domestic life is so ridiculous."
"Why? The greatest musicians have married."