Stradella | Page 6

the
two parted and Pignaver took himself off, leaving his niece to take her
first lesson under the guardianship of the nurse, who moved her chair
so that she could watch the pair while she was busy with her lace.
For a few seconds neither spoke, and they looked at each other in
silence as if making better acquaintance through their eyes alone, by
which they had quickly reached a first degree of understanding.
Stradella's face was quite grave, while Ortensia's lips were just parted,
as if she were ready to smile, if he would. But he would not, and he
was the first to speak.
'How shall we begin?' he asked.
Ortensia hesitated and touched the strings of her lute idly, as it lay
across her knee, just kept from slipping down by the broad ribband.
'When you came,' she said at last, 'I had been trying to learn a song of
yours. It is beautiful. Will you show me how to sing it?'
She blushed faintly, and he smiled; but he shook his head.
'I saw it lying there as soon as I came in,' he said. 'But I understand it to
be the Senator's wish that we should study his music rather than mine.'
She was disappointed, and did not try to hide it; but she was not used to
asserting her own will, and her uncle's word had always been law in his
house, to be obeyed whether he were present or not. As for Stradella,
he would have sung his own song for her with delight, but he distrusted
the woman in grey, who might be a spy for all he knew. He carefully
withdrew his lute from the purple bag and began to tune the strings. It
was a fine instrument, made in Cremona, but by no means so handsome
in appearance as Ortensia's ivory one. It was differently designed, too,
being much longer, with a double fret-board and no less than nineteen

strings.
'Let me see,' Stradella said, when he was ready. 'That song of the
Senator's you just sang--how was it?'
He struck chords, bent low over the lute, softly hummed a few snatches
of the melody, and then, to Ortensia's surprise, he began to sing the
piece as if he knew it well. He sang softly, without the least effort, and
his voice seemed neither high nor deep, but there was a tone in it that
the young girl had never heard before, and that sent a thrill to her heart
at the very first note. She bent forwards, watching him with parted lips
and eyes full of wonder, scarcely breathing till he finished the stanza
and spoke to her again.
'Is that it?' he asked quietly, and he smiled as he looked at her.
'But you know it!' she cried. 'If I had ever heard you I should not have
dared to try to sing before you!'
'I never heard it before,' Stradella answered, 'but I catch any tune easily.
Shall we study it a little?' he went on, before she could speak again. 'I
will accompany you at first, and I will stop you now and then, where I
think you might do better. Shall we?'
Again he smiled, but this time it was by way of encouragement, and he
at once began a little prelude on the lute.
'You will sing better if you stand up,' he suggested.
She rose, took her own lute from her neck, and stood resting one hand
on the high back of her chair, turning her face from him; for she was
afraid, now that she had heard him. It was as bad as the worst
stage-fright; her tongue was paralysed, her limbs shook under her, she
shivered with cold in the sunshine, and her forehead was damp. Yet she
had not felt the slightest shyness a quarter of an hour earlier, when she
had first sung the piece.
'Sing with me,' he said quietly, and he began the song again.

Presently she took courage and the notes came, unsteadily at first, but
then true and clear; and Stradella's own voice died to a whisper, and she
went on alone, to the accompaniment he played.
'You see,' he said, as she paused, 'it is better to stand. Now I will show
you how to make one or two little improvements.'
So the lesson went on, and she conscientiously tried to do exactly what
he taught her; and their eyes met often, but that could not be helped, for
he showed her how to vary the quality of her tone by movements of the
mouth, and to do this she had to watch his lips and he was obliged to
look at hers, which is sometimes a dangerous exercise for young people,
even at a first