Epilogue - Page 2

looked and wondered long at a white
form that rose elusively out of the mists above the broad waters of
the Loire, like some child of the sun and the river, or some freak of
air and cloud. This translucent form was a sylph or a naiad by turns;
she hovered in the air like a word that haunts the memory, which seeks
in vain to grasp it; she glided among the islands, she nodded her head
here and there among the tall poplar trees; then she grew to a giant's
height; she shook out the countless folds of her drapery to the light;
she shot light from the aureole that the sun had litten about her
face; she hovered above the slopes of the hills and their little
hamlets, and seemed to bar the passage of the boat before the Chateau
d'Usse. You might have thought that _La dame des belles cousines_ sought
to protect her country from modern intrusion."

"Well, well, I understand. So it went with Pauline. But how about
Foedora?"

"Oh! Foedora, you are sure to meet with her! She was at the Bouffons
last night, and she will go to the Opera this evening, and if you like
to take it so, she is Society."