It is seldom I am thus rewarded!" Zara flushed deeply, and then grew very pale.
"Indeed, Prince," she answered quietly, "you mistake me.

I always listen with pleasure to your singing--to-night, perhaps, my mood is more fitted to music than is usual with me, and thus I may appear to you to be more attentive.

But your voice always delights me as it must delight everybody who hears it." "While you are in a musical mood then," returned Prince Ivan, "let me sing you an English song--one of the loveliest ever penned.

I have set it to music myself, as such words are not of the kind to suit ordinary composers or publishers; they are too much in earnest, too passionate, too full of real human love and sorrow.

The songs that suit modern drawing-rooms and concert-halls, as a rule, are those that are full of sham sentiment--a real, strong, throbbing HEART pulsing through a song is too terribly exciting for lackadaisical society.