Part 17 (1/2)
Beatrice looked up to the sky with a strange, serene shetti has no passion out of art,” she said ”As an artist he is all fire, and vehemence, and enthusiasm He is aware of all human passions, but only as an artist He has only one love, and that is music This is his idol
He see But all the raptures which poets and novelists apply to lovers are felt by hi while he has this He thinks the hest life He says those to whom the revelations of God were committed were musicians
As David and Isaiah received inspiration to the strains of the harp, so, he says, have Bach and Mozart, Handel and Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn And where, indeed,” she continued, in a , ”where, indeed, can man rise so near heaven as when he listens to the inspired strains of these lofty souls?”
”Langhetti,” said Brandon, in a low voice, ”does not understand love, or he would not put music in its place”
”Yes,” said Beatrice ”We spoke once about that He has his own ideas, which he expressed to me”
”What were they?”
”I will have to say them as he said them,” said she ”For on this theme he had to express himself in an to sing:
”Fairest of allLove, how co breeze Over the starry wave-- The moonlit wave--
”The heart lies motionless; So still, so sensitive; Love fans the breeze
Lo! at his lightest touch, The myriad ripples rise, And mur seas, Till, far and wide, The endless billows roll, In undulations long, For evermore!”
Her voice died away into a scarce audible tone, which sank into Brandon's heart, lingering and dying about the last word, with touching and unutterable melancholy It was like the la heart
In a ht s these words as an artist For aher own feelings But the bright sly with the melancholy of her voice that he saw this was not so
”Thus,” she said, ”Langhetti sang about it: and I have never forgotten his words”
The thought came to Brandon, is it not truer than she thinks, that ”she loves him very dearly?” as she said
”You were born to be an artist,” he said, at last
Beatrice sighed lightly ”That's what I never can be, I aratify ly, ”is open to women as well as to men; and of all arts none are so reat hetti used to say that these are the only ones of modern times that have received heavenly inspiration
They correspond to the Jewish prophets He used to declare that the interpretation of each was of equal iiven the interpretation of the one, but to woiven the interpretation of much of the other Why is notwithin o forth upon this reat masters of modern days?
”You,” she continued, ”are a man, and you have a purpose” Brandon started, but she did not notice it ”You have a purpose in life,” she repeated ”Your intercourse with me will hereafter be but an episode in the life that is before you I airl, but I too may wish to have a purpose in life--suited to my powers; and if I am not able to work toward it I shall not be satisfied”
”How do you know that I have a purpose, as you call it?” asked Brandon, after a pause
”By the expression of your face, and your whole manner when you are alone and subside into yourself,” she replied, simply
”And of what kind?” he continued
”That I do not seek to know,” she replied; ”but I know that itIt seems to me to be too stern for Love; you are not the man to devote yourself to Avarice: possibly it may be Ambition, yet somehow I do not think so”