Moths by Ouida — page 382: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

378 eis MOTHS. divisions of troops as the city flocked to a review in tue Champ — de Mars. He could not speak; they would save his life, perhaps, but he knew that they could never save his voice, 7 As a singer he was dead. All the joys of his art and allits powers were perished for- evermore; all the triumph and the ecstasy of song were finished as a tale that is told; ali the fame of his life and its splendor were snapped asunder in their prime and perfection, as a flower is brok- en off in full blossom. ‘‘ And I did her no good!” he thought: he had lost all and he had done nothing! He was half delirious; his sight languidly recognized the — familiar room about him, and watched the stray lines of sun- shine glimmer through the shutters; but his mind was absorbed and full of dull feverish dreams; he thought now of St. Peters- burg, with the rain of hothouse flowers on the ice in hisj nights of triumph, row of the Norman sunshine with the common roses blooming against the fence of furze, now of the bleak snow-plains of Szarisla. All was confused to him and showed like figures in a mist. Sometimes he thought that he was already dead, already in his tomb, and that about him the crowds of Paris were singing his own Noel. . Sometimes he thought “ that he was walking with Dante and with Virgil, and that dévils tried to hold him down as he strove to:cry aloud te Christ, ‘‘ Lord, she is innocent!” » All the while he was mute; he could scarcely breathe, he coult. not speak. Uusconscious though they thought him, he heard them say around his bed, ‘‘ he may speak again, perhaps, but he will never be able to sing a note.” : ; : They thought him deaf as well asdumb. But he heard and understood. _ Jn his fever and his suffering he said always in his heart, ‘If only she will think that I did well!” Then he would grow délirious again and forget, and fancy that he was called to sing to the people and that his mouth was closed with steel. The wintry sunshine was brillant and clear, it was injthelafter- noon; through the dusk of his room there came the distant sounds ~ of trumpets, and the boom of the cannon of the Invalides. All else was still. ‘ All Paris was interested with the pleasure of a spectacle; the. streets were deserted, the houses were emptied, all the city was in the Champ de Mars, and on the cold clear air bursts of distant sounds from clashing cymbals and rolling drums came into the chamber of Correze whom Paris had forgotten. At the Gare de PEst with other travelers at that moment there descended from a sleeping-carriage a woman clothed in furs, and with a dog in a leash beside her. She walked quickly and with a haughty movement across the crowded waiting-room; she was alone except for her dog. Her . ; face was very white, her eyes seemed to burn as the stars did in » f, » comicbooks y ia rs i + he es Me < ee) w oy CPAP eet Pelee Ls t