Philip Curtiss

“ Slowly the orchestra wove its way into the melody, and suddenly, deer-like, the girl raised her head, for over the wall were coming the notes of the lover she had just sent away in anger:
"Ah, women, all daughters of Eve,
Ever faithless, ever heartless.
The love that we fondly believe
Never changing, never wand 'ring—"
Through its two verses, with the lover's voice ever diminishing in the distance, the song gently faded away, then slowly and wanly died out, in the very middle of the bar, a faint broken cadence. ”

“ As the rhythm advanced to and included the first violins the least musical soul in the house was looking expectantly toward the silent side of the orchestra, wondering what would happen when the spark of melody should leap across the gap and set a blaze on the other side. ”

“ Even when Tilly came on and was greeted by a really spontaneous burst of applause, he roused himself only momentarily. Whether it really was weariness or whether it was that same dreamy detachment which had characterized his whole life, like that of his fathers, it still remained impossible for Bellsmith to connect the sight of Tilly on the stage with his thoughts of her in their life together. ”