lled up before de Gery's eyes
feminine visions, Aline, Felicia, gliding across the enchanted
landscape, in that blue-tinted atmosphere, that elysian light which
seemed to be the visible perfume of such a multitude of flowers in full
bloom. A sound of doors closing made him open his eyes. Some one had
entered the adjoining room. He heard a dress brushing against the thin
partition, the turning of leaves in a book in which the reader seemed to
feel no absorbing interest; for he was startled by a long sigh ending in
a yawn. Was he still asleep, still dreaming? Had he not heard the cry of
the "jackal in the desert," so thoroughly in harmony with the heavy,
scorching temperature without? No. Nothing more. He dozed again; and
this time all the confused images that haunted him took definite shape
in a dream, a very lovely dream.

He was taking his wedding journey with Aline. A fascinating bride she
was. Bright eyes, overflowing with love and faith, which knew only him,
looked at none but him. In that same hotel parlor, on the other side of
the centre table, the sweet girl was sitting in a white _neglige_
morning costume which smelt of violets and of the dainty lace of the
trousseau. One of those wedding-journey breakfasts, served immediately
after rising, in sight of the blue sea and the clear sky which tinge
with azure the glass from which you drink, the eyes into which you gaze,
the future, life and the vast expanse of space. Oh! what superb
weather, what a divine, youth-renewing light, and how happy they were!

And suddenly, amid their kisses, their intoxicating bliss, Aline became
sad. Her lovely eyes were dimmed with tears. "Felicia is there," she
said, "you will not love me any more." And he laughed at her:
"Felicia,--here? What an idea!" "Yes, yes, she is there." Trembling, she
pointed to the adjoining room, where he heard Felicia's voice, mingled
with fierce barking. "Here, Kadour! Here, Kadour!" the low,
concentrated, indignant voice of one who seeks to remain concealed and
suddenly finds that she is discovered.

Awakened with a start, the lover, disenchanted, found himself in the
empty room, beside a table at which no one else was sitting, his lovely
dream flown away through the window to the great hillside which filled
the whole field of vision and seemed to stoop toward the house. But he
really heard the barking of a dog in the adjoining room and repeated
blows on the door.

"Open the door. It is I--Jenkins."