Trilby

Book Excerpt: ...r shy people, who fear the unaccompanied sound of their own voices, and whose genial chatter always leaves off directly the music ceases. He never forgot that impromptu, which he was destined to hear again one day in strange circumstances. Then Svengali and Gecko made music together, divinely. Little fragmentary things, sometimes consisting of but a few bars, but these bars of such beauty and meaning! Scraps, snatches, short melodies, meant to fetch, to charm immediately, or to melt or sadden or madden just for a moment, and that knew just when to leave off---czardas, gypsy dances, Hungarian love-plaints, things little known out of eastern Europe in the fifties of this century, till the Laird and Taffy were almost as wild in their enthusiasm as Little Billee--a silent enthusiasm too deep for speech. And when these two great artists left off to smoke, the three Britishers were too much moved even for that, and there was a stillness.... Suddenly there came a loud knuckle-rapping at the oute...