Sandra Belloni | Page 5

"Ah!" And
sure enough that was the voice of the woods, cleaving the night air, not
distant. A sleepy fire of early moonlight hung through the dusky
fir-branches. The voice had the woods to itself, and seemed to fill them
and soar over them, it was so full and rich, so light and sweet. And now,
to add to the marvel, they heard a harp accompaniment, the strings
being faintly touched, but with firm fingers. A woman's voice: on that
could be no dispute. Tell me, what opens heaven more flamingly to
heart and mind, than the voice of a woman, pouring clear accordant
notes to the blue night sky, that grows light blue to the moon? There
was no flourish in her singing. All the notes were firm, and rounded,
and sovereignly distinct. She seemed to have caught the ear of Night,
and sang confident of her charm. It was a grand old Italian air,
requiring severity of tone and power. Now into great mournful hollows
the voice sank steadfastly. One soft sweep of the strings succeeded a
deep final note, and the hearers breathed freely.
"Stradella!" said the Greek, folding his arms.

The ladies were too deeply impressed to pursue their play with him.
Real emotions at once set aside the semi-credence they had given to
their own suggestions.
"Hush! she will sing again," whispered Adela. "It is the most delicious
contralto." Murmurs of objection to the voice being characterized at all
by any technical word, or even for a human quality, were heard.
"Let me find zis woman!" cried the prose enthusiast Mr. Pericles,
imperiously, with his bearskin thrown back on his shoulders, and forth
they stepped, following him.
In the middle of the wood there was a sandy mound, rising half the
height of the lesser firs, bounded by a green-grown vallum, where once
an old woman, hopelessly a witch, had squatted, and defied the
authorities to make her budge: nor could they accomplish the task
before her witch-soul had taken wing in the form of a black night-bird,
often to be heard jarring above the spot. Lank dry weeds and nettles,
and great lumps of green and gray moss, now stood on the poor old
creature's place of habitation, and the moon, slanting through the
fir-clumps, was scattered on the blossoms of twisted orchard-trees,
gone wild again. Amid this desolation, a dwarfed pine, whose roots
were partially bared as they grasped the broken bank that was its perch,
threw far out a cedar-like hand. In the shadow of it sat the fair singer. A
musing touch of her harp-strings drew the intruders to the charmed
circle, though they could discern nothing save the glimmer of the
instrument and one set of fingers caressing it. How she viewed their
rather impertinent advance toward her, till they had ranged in a
half-circle nearer and nearer, could not be guessed. She did not seem
abashed in any way, for, having preluded, she threw herself into
another song.
The charm was now more human, though scarcely less powerful. This
was a different song from the last: it was not the sculptured music of
the old school, but had the richness and fulness of passionate blood that
marks the modern Italian, where there is much dallying with beauty in
the thick of sweet anguish. Here, at a certain passage of the song, she
gathered herself up and pitched a nervous note, so shrewdly triumphing,

that, as her voice sank to rest, her hearers could not restrain a deep
murmur of admiration.
Then came an awkward moment. The ladies did not wish to go, and
they were not justified in stopping. They were anxious to speak, and
they could not choose the word to utter. Mr. Pericles relieved them by
moving forward and doffing his hat, at the same time begging excuse
for the rudeness they were guilty of.
The fair singer answered, with the quickness that showed a girl: "Oh,
stay; do stay, if I please you!" A singular form of speech, it was thought
by the ladies.
She added: "I feel that I sing better when I have people to listen to me."
"You find it more sympathetic, do you not?" remarked Cornelia.
"I don't know," responded the unknown, with a very honest smile. "I
like it."
She was evidently uneducated. "A professional?" whispered Adela to
Arabella. She wanted little invitation to exhibit her skill, at all events,
for, at a word, the clear, bold, but finely nervous voice, was pealing to a
brisker measure, that would have been joyous but for one fall it had,
coming unexpectedly, without harshness, and winding up the song in a
ringing melancholy.
After a few bars had been sung, Mr. Pericles was seen tapping his
forehead perplexedly. The moment it ended, he cried out,