both 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."

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Aquilina
Melmoth Reconciled

Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
A Second Home
A Prince of Bohemia
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche

Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de
Letters of Two Brides
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
A Start in Life
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
The Member for Arcis

Dudley, Lady Arabella
The Lily of the Valley
The Ball at Sceaux
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Letters of Two Brides

Euphrasia