A few days later I set Sully Prudhomme’s beautiful words, “Ne jamais la voir ni l’entendre.” This time I was far more excited; it was a very much better song [than author’s setting of Byron’s “ Farewell, if ever fondest prayer.”], and I gave it to one of my cousins to try over. She had a soprano voice and sang with a good deal of dramatic feeling. The melody I had composed was broad and flowing, and there was something in the song that made it possible for a singer to “let himself go” in it. I was almost beside myself with joy when I heard her sing it for the first time. She threw herself into the spirit of the words and sang the music with real passion, as she has sung many a song of mine since then.