the noon sun
But how she used to sing _ O sole mio _ , with that sweet , piercing Italian cry , a real _ cri du coeur _ -LRB- except for the trifling fact that there was no more heart in it , really , than there is in most Italian singing ! I suppose that while the art of song remains among the children of men , that particular child who is able to throw his voice most easily into what Mme. M -- i used to call `` ze frront of ze face '' and detach it from the throat , where the true feelings lie gripped , will continue to thrill the other children with his or her `` heart in the voice ! '' -RRB- And how she would drag the rhythm , deliciously , intentionally , and shade the downward notes , and hang a breath too long on the phrase-ends , as only Italians dare ! And how the distilled essence of Italy dripped out of those luscious , tender , mocking folk-songs , till the vineyards steeped before us , and the white city-squares baked in the noon sun , and the ardent sailor sang to his brown girl over the quaint , bobbing , weighted nets ! The men who dug the ice-house and piled the coast wall and blasted out trenches for draining would stop and lean on their picks , when her resonant , golden humming , like a drowsy contralto bee , floated out from the verandah vines to them : I have seen their faces clear and their dull eyes focus suddenly on some distant , darling memory , while they dropped back for a precious minute into the past that you think is all bread and cheese and beer , because , forsooth , they never sat beside you in white gloves when Margarita sang ! Go to -- there was Spring and a girl for every man of them , once , and both were the same as yours . I had to go into her room at that time , to make sure that the floor should not be unduly marred and that , according to the best of my poor judgment -LRB- Roger should have planned it all , as a matter of fact -RRB- the registers might be inserted in the best places ; and as I moved among the dainty luxuries that replaced the almost sordid bareness of that room when I had first seen it , I realised , with surprise but with clear certainty , that the change was only apparent , not deep or inherent .