Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV. the close of Friday's sitting Elias said : " You know, Berlioz has taken great liberties with Goethe's text—quite altered the story, indeed, and given it an ending to suit himself." " That won't matter much to me," responded Christine, " because I've never read ' Faust,' and I have only the vaguest notion of what the story is." " Did it suffer a like fate to' Wilhelm Meister's ?"' " No ; but I can't read German, and I didn't know whether there was any good translation. Is there ? " Oh, yes ; Bayard Taylor's is beautiful. You ought to read it." " Then, besides, I had an idea that it was very deep and obscure—very hard to understand. Do you think I could understand it? " " I'm sure you could—all that's essential. You could get the story and the human nature. I believe you'd find it even more moving than ' Adam Bede.'" " Can't you tell me the story ? Won't you tell it to me now ? " " Oh, I should only spoil it." But Christine begged him to give her the outline of it, pleading that she would enjoy the music so much more intelligently if she were not altogetherignorant of the plot. So, during their luncheon, Elias related as best he could something of the love- story of Faust and Margaret. Christine listened with bated breath, and wide eyes fastened upon his face ; and at its conclusion she drew a profound sigh, and murmured : " Oh, how sad, how sad ! " " Now," said Elias, " I must explain how Berlioz has tampered with it." Which he proceeded to do. They walked as far as Seventh Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, where they took the University Place car. Elias thought he had never been so happy. It was an exhilaration merely to share this young girl's presence, breathing the same air that she breathed. The sunshine caught new radiance from her hair. ...