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A Crystal Age by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson
page 81 of 195 (41%)
was holding her hands pressed to her ears.

I thought it about time to leave off then, and stopping abruptly in the
middle of the fourth stanza I sat down, feeling extremely hot and
uncomfortable. I was almost choking, and unable to utter a word. But
there was no word for me to utter: it was, of course, for them to thank
me for singing, or to say something; but not a word was spoken. Yoletta
dropped her hands and resumed her work, while the old man slowly emerged
with a somewhat frightened look from the wrappings; and then the long
dead silence becoming unendurable, I remarked that I feared my singing
was not to their taste. No reply was made; only the father, putting out
one of his hands, touched a handle or key near him, whereupon one of the
brass globes began slowly revolving. A low murmur of sound arose, and
seemed to pass like a wave through the room, dying away in the distance,
soon to be succeeded by another, and then another, each marked by an
increase of power; and often as this solemn sound died away, faint
flute-like notes were heard as if approaching, but still at a great
distance, and in the ensuing wave of sound from the great globes they
would cease to be distinguishable. Still the mysterious coming sounds
continued at intervals to grow louder and clearer, joined by other tones
as they progressed, now altogether bursting out in joyous chorus, then
one purest liquid note soaring bird-like alone, but whether from voices
or wind-instruments I was unable to tell, until the whole air about me
was filled and palpitating with the strange, exquisite harmony, which
passed onwards, the tones growing fewer and fainter by degrees until
they almost died out of hearing in the opposite direction. That all were
now taking part in the performance I became convinced by watching in
turn different individuals, some of them having small, curiously-shaped
instruments in their hands, but there was a blending of voices and a
something like ventriloquism in the tones which made it impossible to
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