"
"May I hear it? Nightingales can sing in the dark." Refusal was
impossible, and Jumbo's violin was a far more effective accompaniment
than her own very moderate performance on the spinnet; so in a sweet,
soft, pure, untrained and trembling voice, she sang--
"O Life and Light are sweet, my dear,
O life and Light are sweet;
But sweeter still the hope and cheer
When Love and Life shall meet.
Oh! then it is most sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.
"But Love puts on the yoke, my dear,
But Love puts on the yoke;
The dart of Love calls forth the tear,
As though the heart were broke.
The very heart were broke, broke, broke, broke, broke, broke.
"And Love can quench Life's Light, my dear,
Drear, dark, and melancholy;
Seek Light and Life and jocund cheer,
And mirth and pleasing folly.
Be thine, light-hearted folly, folly, folly, folly, folly, folly.
"'Nay, nay,' she sang. 'yoke, pain, and tear,
For Love I gladly greet;
Light, Life, and Mirth are nothing here,
Without Love's bitter sweet.
Give me Love's bitter sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.'"
"Accept my fervent thanks, kind songstress. So that is the
nightingale's song, and your honoured mother's?"
"Yes, sir. My father often makes us sing it because it reminds him
of her.
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