which he glistened. The eyebrows shone in the light with a
lustre which disclosed a very well executed bit of painting. Luckily
for the eye, saddened by such a mass of ruins, his corpse-like skull was
concealed beneath a light wig, with innumerable curls which
indicated extraordinary pretensions to elegance. Indeed, the feminine
coquettishness of this fantastic apparition was emphatically asserted
by the gold ear-rings which hung at his ears, by the rings containing
stones of marvelous beauty which sparkled on his fingers, like the
brilliants in a river of gems around a woman's neck. Lastly, this
species of Japanese idol had constantly upon his blue lips, a fixed,
unchanging smile, the shadow of an implacable and sneering laugh, like
that of a death's head. As silent and motionless as a statue, he exhaled
the musk-like odor of the old dresses which a duchess' heirs exhume from
her wardrobe during the inventory. If the old man turned his eyes toward
the company, it seemed that the movements of those globes, no
longer capable of reflecting a gleam, were accomplished by an almost
imperceptible effort; and, when the eyes stopped, he who was watching
them was not certain finally that they had moved at all. As I saw,
beside that human ruin, a young woman whose bare neck and arms and
breast were white as snow; whose figure was well-rounded and beautiful
in its youthful grace; whose hair, charmingly arranged above an
alabaster forehead, inspired love; whose eyes did not receive but gave
forth light, who was sweet and fresh, and whose fluffy curls, whose
fragrant breath, seemed too heavy, too harsh, too overpowering for that
shadow, for that man of dust--ah! the thought that came into my mind
was of death and life, an imaginary arabesque, a half-hideous chimera,
divinely feminine from the waist up.

"And yet such marriages are often made in society!" I said to myself.

"He smells of the cemetery!" cried the terrified young woman, grasping
my arm as if to make sure of my protection, and moving about in a
restless, excited way, which convinced me that she was very much
frightened. "It's a horrible vision," she continued; "I cannot stay here
any longer. If I look at him again I shall believe that Death himself
has come in search of me. But is he alive?"

She placed her hand on the phenomenon, with the boldness which women
derive from the violence of their wishes, but a cold sweat burst from
her pores, for, the instant she touche