His
banjo was in almost continuous demand throughout, but finally, just at
the end, he laid it aside.
He took something from his pocket; what it was Juliet could not see, but
she caught the gleam of metal in the lamp-light, and in a moment a great
buzz of pleasure spread through the crowd. And then it began--such music
as she had never dreamed of--such music as surely was never fluted save
from the pipes of Pan. A long, sweet, thrilling note like the call of a
nightingale, starting far away, drawing swiftly nearer, nearer, till she
felt as if it ended against her heart, and then all the joy of spring, of
youth, of hope, poured forth in an amazing ecstasy of silver
sound--showers of fairy notes like the dancing of tiny feet or the
lightest patter of summer rain that ever fell upon opening leaves--and
the gold-flecked sunshine that shimmered in the crystal dawning of a day
new-born. Afterwards there came the sound of waterfalls and laughing
streams and the calling of fairy voices, the tinkle of fairy laughter,
and then the sea and shoaling water--shoaling water--breaking in a
million sparkles over the rocks of an enchanted strand!
And it was to her alone that that wonder-music spoke.
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