"
"Then sing to each other," was the reply. "You can do it."
"Let Captain Hugh sing," said Watson. "He's off watch."
"He says," said Ramsey, "captains don't sing on the texas roof." She
moved to join the group on its way to an after stair. Watson bent his
steps for the pilot-house. At the stair the actor's wife let her husband
and "California" go down before her and as Ramsey and Hugh came close
said covertly:
"Sing, captain. Sing as softly as you please, just for us two while the
world is in dreams and sleep, won't you?"
The lover's heart was big with happiness, his solicitor had just been
singing pointedly in his interest, the seclusion here was all but
absolute, the quoted line was from Ramsey's song of that first night on
the _Votaress_, and to the bright surprise of both his hearers he laid a
touch on Mrs. Gilmore's arm and in a restrained voice so confidential as
to reach only to the pilot-house above and to the two men at the stair's
foot below began to sing.
Before half a line was out the Californian had seized both of Gilmore's
shoulders. "My poem!" he gasped. "I gave it to him last night to
grammatize! He's fit it to a tchune. Partner, he's the only man that's
listened----"
"Sh-sh-sh! listen yourself," whispered the actor, and this is what they
heard:
[Music: O come and grace my gar-den, From all the world a-part.
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