"The young lady is so kind as to come and cheer the old hermit. A thousand thanks, madam. Permit me."
Aurelia's hand was taken by one soft for want of use, and she was led forward on a deep piled carpet, and carefully placed on a chair in the midst of the intense black darkness. There was a little movement and then the voice said, "I am most sensible of your goodness, madam."
"I--I am glad. You are very good, sir," murmured Aurelia, oppressed by the gloom and the peculiar atmosphere, cool--for the windows were open behind the shutters--but strangely fragrant.
"How does my excellent friend, Major Delavie?"
"I thank you, sir, he is well, though his wound troubles him from time to time."
"Commend me to him when you write, if you are good enough to remember it."
"I thank you, sir. He will be rejoiced to hear of you."
"He does me too much honour."
These conventionalities being exhausted, a formidable pause ensued, first broken by Mr. Belamour, "May I ask how my fair visitor likes Bowstead?"
"It is a fine place, sir."
"But somewhat lonely for so youthful a lady?"
"I have the children, sir."
"I often hear their cheerful voices."
"I hope we do not disturb you, sir, I strive to restrain them, but I fear we are all thoughtless."
"Nay, the innocent sounds of mirth ring sweetly on my ears, like the notes of birds. And when I have heard a charming voice singing to the little ones, I have listened with delight. Would it be too presumptuous to beg the air songstress to repeat her song for the old recluse?"
"O, sir, I have only nursery ditties, caught from our old German maid," cried Aurelia, in dismay.
"That might not diminish the charm to me," he said. "In especial there was one song whose notes Jumbo caught as you accompanied yourself on the spinnet."
And Jumbo, who seemed able to see in the dark, played a bar on his violin, while Aurelia trembled with shyness.
"The Nightingale Song," she said. "My dear mother learnt the tune abroad. And I believe that she herself made the English words, when she was asked what the nightingales say."
"May I hear it? Nightingales can sing in the dark." Refusal was impossible, and Jumbo's violin was a far more effective accompaniment than her own very moderate performance on the spinnet; so in a sweet, soft, pure, untrained and trembling voice, she sang-"O Life and Light are sweet, my dear, O life and Light are sweet; But sweeter still the hope and cheer When Love and Life shall meet. Oh! then it is most sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.