is a kind of hood, more generally known among the Bearnese
peasantry as a _sarot_. Whilst forming a coif it also completely
covers the back and shoulders.--Trans.

From this the rumours started and grew. The Soubirouses, on being made
acquainted with the circumstance, evinced much displeasure at such
childish nonsense, and told their daughter that she was not to return to
the rock of Massabielle. All the children of the neighbourhood, however,
were already repeating the tale, and when Sunday came the parents had to
give way, and allow Bernadette to betake herself to the Grotto with a
bottle of holy water to ascertain if it were really the devil whom one
had to deal with. She then again beheld the light, the figure became more
clearly defined, and smiled upon her, evincing no fear whatever of the
holy water. And, on the ensuing Thursday, she once more returned to the
spot accompanied by several persons, and then for the first time the
radiant lady assumed sufficient corporality to speak, and say to her: "Do
me the kindness to come here for fifteen days."

Thus, little by little, the lady had assumed a precise appearance. The
something clad in white had become indeed a lady more beautiful than a
queen, of a kind such as is only seen in pictures. At first, in presence
of the questions with which all the neighbours plied her from morning
till evening, Bernadette had hesitated, disturbed, perhaps, by scruples
of conscience. But then, as though prompted by the very interrogatories
to which she was subjected, she seemed to perceive the figure which she
had beheld, more plainly, so that it definitely assumed life, with lines
and hues from which the child, in her after-descriptions, never departed.
The lady's eyes were blue and very mild, her mouth was rosy and smiling,
the oval of her face expressed both the grace of youth and of maternity.
Below the veil covering her head and falling to her heels, only a glimpse
was caught of her admirable fair hair, which was slightly curled. Her
robe, which was of dazzling whiteness, must have been of some material
unknown on earth, some material woven of the sun's rays. Her sash, of the
same hue as the heavens, was fastened loosely about her, its long ends
streaming downwards, with the light airiness of morning. Her chaplet,
wound about her right arm, had beads of a milky whiteness, whilst the
links and the cross were of gold. And on her bare feet, on her adorable
feet of virgin sn