dream was continued. The curtains
again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion,
pale in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her
cheeks, but gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of
green velvet, trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to
allow a glimpse of satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick
ringlets from beneath a broad black felt hat, decorated with white
feathers whimsically twisted into various shapes. In one hand she held a
little riding-whip terminated by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly
with it, and exclaimed: 'Well, my fine sleeper, is this the way you
make your preparations? I thought I would find you up and dressed. Arise
quickly, we have no time to lose.'

I leaped out of bed at once.

'Come, dress yourself, and let us go,' she continued, pointing to
a little package she had brought with her. 'The horses are becoming
impatient of delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have
been by this time at least ten leagues distant from here.'

I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel
herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my
awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made
a mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up
before me a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver
filigree-work, and playfully asked: 'How dost find thyself now? Wilt
engage me for thy valet de chambre?'

I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself.
I resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles
a block of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one
reflected in the mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly
tickled by the metamorphosis.

That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me
a totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of
transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain
pattern. The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten
minutes more I had become something of a coxcomb.

In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns
up and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal
pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. 'Come, enough of
this child's play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and
we may not get there in time.' She