And she looked steadfastly up.

For a moment she stood, and the hushed air trembled about her.

Then the silence caught the tremor, and quivered, and a thrill of sound hovered and spread its wings, and sailed forth from the night.
"Spirto gentil dei sogni miei--" Ah, Signorina Edvigia, you know that voice now, but you did not know it then.

How your heart stopped, and beat, and stopped again, when you first heard that man sing out his whole heartful--you in the light and he in the dark! And his soul shot out to you upon the sounds, and died fitfully, as the magic notes dashed their soft wings against the vaulted roof above you, and took new life again and throbbed heavenward in broad, passionate waves, till your breath came thick and your blood ran fiercely--ay, even your cold northern blood--in very triumph that a voice could so move you.

A voice in the dark.