s, the undulations
she thus produced upon the surface of the water. Then she knelt down at
the edge of the stream and amused herself, like a child, in casting in
her long tresses and pulling them abruptly out, to watch the shower of
drops that glittered down, looking, as the sunlight struck athwart them,
like a chaplet of pearls.

"That woman is mad!" cried the marquis.

A hoarse cry, uttered by Genevieve, seemed uttered as a warning to the
unknown woman, who turned suddenly, throwing back her hair from either
side of her face. At this instant the colonel and Monsieur d'Albon could
distinctly see her features; she, herself, perceiving the two friends,
sprang to the iron railing with the lightness and rapidity of a deer.

"Adieu!" she said, in a soft, harmonious voice, the melody of which did
not convey the slightest feeling or the slightest thought.

Monsieur d'Albon admired the long lashes of her eyelids, the blackness
of her eyebrows, and the dazzling whiteness of a skin devoid of even the
faintest tinge of color. Tiny blue veins alone broke the uniformity of
its pure white tones. When the marquis turned to his friend as if to
share with him his amazement at the sight of this singular creature, he
found him stretched on the ground as if dead. D'Albon fired his gun
in the air to summon assistance, crying out "Help! help!" and then
endeavored to revive the colonel. At the sound of the shot, the unknown
woman, who had hitherto stood motionless, fled away with the rapidity
of an arrow, uttering cries of fear like a wounded animal, and running
hither and thither about the meadow with every sign of the greatest
terror.

Monsieur d'Albon, hearing the rumbling of a carriage on the high-road
to Ile-Adam, waved his handkerchief and shouted to its occupants for
assistance. The carriage was immediately driven up to the old monastery,
and the marquis recognized his neighbors, Monsieur and Madame de
Granville, who at once gave up their carriage to the service of the
two gentlemen. Madame de Granville had with her, by chance, a bottle of
salts, which revived the colonel for a moment. When he opened his eyes
he turned them to the meadow, where the unknown woman was still running
and uttering her distressing cries. A smothered exclamation escaped
him, which seemed to express a sense of horror; then he closed his eyes
again, and made a gesture as if to implore his friend to remove him from
that sight.

Monsieur and Madame de Gra