Tancred would have found great difficulty in sustaining
his part in the conversation, had not the young ladies fortunately been
requested to favour those present with a specimen of the art in which
they excelled, which they did after much solicitation, vowing that they
had no voice to-night, and that it was impossible at all times to sing
except in a chamber.
'For my part,' said Hillel Besso, with an extremely piquant air, 'music
in a chamber is very charming, but I think also in the open air it is
not so bad.'
Tancred took advantage of this movement to approach Eva, who was
conversing, as they took their evening walk, with the soft-eyed
sister of Hillel and Madame Nassim Farhi; a group of women that the
drawing-rooms of Europe and the harems of Asia could perhaps not have
rivalled.
'The Mesdemoiselles Laurella are very accomplished,' said Tancred,
'but at Damascus I am not content to hear anything but sackbuts and
psalteries.'
'But in Europe your finest music is on the subjects of our history,'
said Eva.
'Naturally,' said Tancred, 'music alone can do justice to such themes.
They baffle the uninspired pen.'
'There is a prayer which the Mesdemoiselles Laurella once sang, a prayer
of Moses in Egypt,' said Madame Nassim, somewhat timidly.
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