"Torna in fior di giovinezza
Isaotta Blanzesmano,
Dice: Tutto al mondo e vano:
Nell'amore ogni dolcezza."
Tears came into Lady Cardington's eyes as she listened, brimmed over and
fell down upon her blanched cheeks. Each time the refrain recurred she
moved her lips: "Dice: Tutto al mondo e vano: Nell'amore ogni dolcezza."
Lady Holme's voice was like honey as she sang, and tears were in her eyes
too. Each time the refrain fell from her heart she seemed to see another
world, empty of gossamer threads, a world of spread wings, a world
of--but such poetry and music do not tell you! Nor can you imagine. You
can only dream and wonder, as when you look at the horizon line and pray
for the things beyond.
"Tutto--tutto al mondo a vano:
Nell'amore ogni dolcezza."
"Why do you sing like that to-day?" said Lady Cardington, wiping her eyes
gently.
"I feel like that to-day," Lady Holme said, keeping her hands on the keys
in the last chord. There was a vagueness in her eyes, a sort of faint
cloud of fear. While she was singing she had thought, "Have I known the
love that shows the vanity of the world? Have I known the love in which
alone all sweetness lives?" The thought had come in like a firefly
through an open window. "Have I? Have I?"
And something within her felt a stab of pain, something within her soul
and yet surely a thousand miles away.
"Tutto--tutto al mondo e vano," murmured Lady Cardington.
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