The balcony and the windows and lights of
the drawing-room could all be seen from this spot. The window still
stood open, the notes of a piano were heard, and a voice began the song:
"From out my tears will bloom
Full many a flow'ret fair."
A pretty, but somewhat cold, female voice, with no special tenderness
and feeling. Yet the combined poesy of Heine and Schumann triumphed
gloriously over the inadequacy of the execution. The wonderful,
choral-like melody soared like the flight of a swan over the rapt pair,
and completely dissolved their souls in melody and love:
"Before thy windows shall ring
The song of the nightingale,"
sang the woman's voice above, and the accompanying piano completed the
air with an organ-like closing accord.
"Before thy windows shall ring
The song of the nightingale,"
Karl softly repeated, in his beautiful baritone, thrilling with an
approaching tempest of passion, his arms clasped Ada's waist, and he
gazed up at her with wild, flaming eyes. She bent down to him and her
lips met his, which nearly scorched them.
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