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Updated: May 20, 2025
When he spoke again it was with some hesitation, and his manner was almost diffident. "Rosamund, that day at Burstal, were you at all inclined to accept me?" "Yes; I think, perhaps, I was. Why?" "Sometimes I have fancied there was a moment when " He looked at her and then, for once, his eyes fell before hers almost guiltily. They sat in silence for a moment.
Rosamund did not return to the subject of her debut at Burstal, but in the late afternoon of that day she spoke of her singing, and of the place it might have in their married life. Dion believed she did this because of their conversation near the Temple of Nike. They had spent most of the day on the Acropolis.
"D'you remember when we were in the night train coming from Burstal? You had a feather that night." "Damn it! Why rake up ?" "And I said how wonderful it would be if some day I were married to Rosamund." "Is it wonderful?" "Yes." "Very wonderful?" "Yes." "Children too!" Daventry sighed. "One wants to be worthy of it all," he murmured.
But I felt for the first time that day that I was out of sympathy with my audience. And then" she paused, but presently added with a certain dryness "I was never offered any engagement to sing in oratorio after Burstal." "I believe a good many people thought your talent would show at its best in opera." "I shall never go on the stage. The idea is hateful to me, and always has been.
"Sometimes I have fancied that perhaps, that day at Burstal, you suddenly realized that love might be a more powerful upholder of life than ambition ever could be." "Sometimes? And you thought it first on the downs, or at any rate after the concert?" "I think I did." "Do you realize," she said slowly, and as if with an effort, "that you and I have never discussed my singing in 'Elijah'?"
Dion reddened. "Why don't you like to tell me?" "Oh, well things go through the mind without our wishing them to. You must know that, Rosamund. They are often like absurd little intruders. One kicks them out if one can." "What kind of intruder did you kick out, or try to kick out, at Burstal?" She spoke half-laughingly, but half-challengingly. He drew a little nearer to her.
When I found you with your 'Paradise' I don't think you meant ever to marry me." "I always liked you. But at first I didn't think of you in that way." "But you had known for ages before Burstal " "Yes, of course. I knew the day I sang at Mr. Darlington's, at that party he gave to introduce me as a singer. I knew first from your mother. She told me." "My mother?"
Would you like me to sing on the stage?" "No." "Dion, why don't you tell me what happened that day at Burstal?" "I scarcely could." "I wish you would try." "Well I think it was a mistake for you to begin your public career in oratorio by singing 'Woe unto them." "Why?" "It's an unsympathetic thing. It's a cruel sort of thing." "Cruel? But it's one of the best-known things in oratorio."
She loved fine music and enjoyed bringing its message home to people, but she had little or no personal vanity, and the life of a public performer entailed a great deal which she already found herself disliking. Recently, too, her successful career had received a slight check. She had made her festival debut at Burstal in "Elijah," and no engagements for oratorio had followed upon it.
I always feel that about people who like me very much." "And did you just go on thinking me kind until that day at Burstal?" "I suppose so. But I felt very much at home with you." "I don't know whether that's a compliment to a man who's still young, or not?" "Nor do I. But that's just how it was." He said nothing for a little while.
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