When he had concluded, he gave the lute with a sigh to Emily, who, to avoid any appearance of affectation, immediately began to play.

She sung a melancholy little air, one of the popular songs of her native province, with a simplicity and pathos that made it enchanting.

But its well-known melody brought so forcibly to her fancy the scenes and the persons, among which she had often heard it, that her spirits were overcome, her voice trembled and ceased--and the strings of the lute were struck with a disordered hand; till, ashamed of the emotion she had betrayed, she suddenly passed on to a song so gay and airy, that the steps of the dance seemed almost to echo to the notes.

BRAVISSIMO! burst instantly from the lips of her delighted auditors, and she was compelled to repeat the air.

Among the compliments that followed, those of the Count were not the least audible, and they had not concluded, when Emily gave the instrument to Signora Livona, whose voice accompanied it with true Italian taste.
Afterwards, the Count, Emily, Cavigni, and the Signora, sung canzonettes, accompanied by a couple of lutes and a few other instruments.