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Below these was a card-table of marquetry with spindle-legs, and on it a work-box of ivory, inlaid with silver and ebony. In the corner stood a harp, an Erard, golden and gracious, not a string of it broken. In the middle of the room was a small square table, covered with a green cloth. An old-fashioned easy chair stood by the chimney; and one sat in it whom to see was to forget her surroundings.
Below these was a card-table of marquetry with spindle-legs, and on it a work-box of ivory, inlaid with silver and ebony. In the corner stood a harp, an Erard, golden and gracious, not a string of it broken. In the middle of the room was a small square table, covered with a green cloth. An old-fashioned easy chair stood by the chimney; and one sat in it whom to see was to forget her surroundings.
"And the poor horse!" said Erard, at the moment when his grandpapa, who bore the flambeaux and the sword of the Chevalier, began his march. "You will return to-morrow morning," said Gottfried to his servants, "and take off the trappings. As to the body, the eagles and the crows must devour it. Come, and may God guard and strengthen us!" The chevalier had recovered his senses.
The arrival of the promised Erard grand-piano made me painfully conscious of what a tin kettle my old grand-piano from Breitkopf und Hartel had been, and I forthwith banished it to the lower regions, where my wife begged she might keep it as a souvenir 'of old times. She afterwards took it with her to Saxony, where she sold it for three hundred marks.
Sit down and convert me. Only don't crush my poor little Erard with Verdi's hoofs. I brought it when I came. It is behind the times too. And, oh, my dear boy, our organ is still worse. So old, so old! To get a proper one I would sacrifice even this piano of mine in a moment only the tinkling thing is not worth a sou to anybody except its master. But there! Are you quite comfortable?"
He opened his mouth to say something, and said nothing; finally he went out, muttering. "Wisdom and patience. Wisdom and patience." It was a prayer. Alice trailed to the window and leaned out, listening for the sound of hoofs and wheels. Nothing there but the darkness and stillness of the moors. She trailed back to the Erard and began to play again.
The Bishop of Beauvais trembled at the idea of this appeal. "Hold your tongue in the devil's name!" said he to the monk. Another of the judges, William Erard, asked Joan menacingly, "Will you abjure those reprobate words and deeds of yours?" "I leave it to the universal Church whether I ought to abjure or not." "That is not enough: you shall abjure at once or you shall burn." Joan shuddered.
The unfortunate square piano had had no pity shown it; more out of tune and asthmatic than ever, it was now always open, and one could read above the yellow and worn-out keyboard a once famous name- "Sebastian Erard, Manufacturer of Pianos and Harps for S.A.R. Madame la Duchesse de Berri."
As regards my fate, I look forward with patience to calm, clear, quietly active years. My work has become dearer to me than ever. I have resumed it lately; it flows from my spirit like a gentle stream. In all my relations to the suffering world one thing guides and determines me pity. When I give myself up to it unconditionally, all my personal suffering ceases. I have at last got my Erard.
All about this abjuration was a mesh of confusion to the mind of Joan. Massieu told her she need but make a mark on the parchment before her to be delivered: if not and he pointed down to a grim figure near the foot of the stage they were on, where stood the headsman with cart and assistants, ready to draw her to the stake. 'Abjure! cried Erard and Massieu, 'or you will be taken and burnt.
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