Page 288 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

A WHITE LILY*

T H E season of music was closing, Parepa Rosa stepping from the
private entrance of “ The Grand” was about to enter her
carriage when her attention was arrested: by "Please, mi ladi— ”
It was only the shrunken, misshappen figure of little Elfin, the Italian
street singer, with Ilk o;d violin under his arm, but the face nplumed
in the gaslight, though pale and pinched, was as delie,'ately cut as
a cameo. While the eager, wistfni light, in the great, brilliant eyes,
the quiver of entreaty in the soft Tv:;i'an voicc, held her fur a moment
against her escort’s endeavor to save her the annoyance of bearing
a beggar's plea.
“ Well ?,s
The slender brown hands of the dwaif held up a fragrant white lily
with a crystal drop in its golden heart. “ Would mi ladi, please? JI
“ Do you mean this lovely flower for me? >J
“ Yes, mi ladi,”
"Y o u heard me sin g?”
“ Mi ladi, T hid under the stairs—-’iwas yesterday 1 heard the voice.
Oh ! mi ladi, I could die ! ”
The loud plaudits of the world she had just left had never shown
Parepa Ro&e the power of her grand voice as she saw it now in those
soft dark eyes aflame, and in those sobbing, broken words.
“ Child, meet me here to-morrow at five o’clock.” And holding
the lily caressingly and stepping into her carriage, she was driven away,
It was Parepa Rosa's hist night. In a box near the stage sat little
Elfin like a child entranced. Grandly the clear voice swelled its
triumphant chords and ran amid the arches with unearthly power and
sweetness. The slight frame of the boy swayed and shook, and a look
so rapt, so intense came on his face, you knew his very heart was
stilled*
Now the wondrous notes thrilled softly like the faint sound of
bugles in early morn, and again its sweetness stole over you like the
distant chimes of vesper bells, Encore after encore followed. The