"Julie, they are real."

"So thinks every body who is haunted by chimeras."

"These are none. Oh, Julie! would I could tell you all. The agony of the
relation would be in some sort recompensed by having one human being to
tell my thoughts to. But it cannot be; it is quite, quite impossible."

"This impossibility is also one of the imagination."

"No, no, Julie; the effort to repose this confidence would destroy _all_
confidence between us. I have said enough--let us speak of other
matters. My innermost grief, be it what it may, I must endure alone.
Julie, it is a hard condition; but I must and will--alone."

Here they were interrupted by Blassemare, who gayly joined them, with a
prayer that they would resolve a momentous difficulty, by deciding upon
the best site for one of his principal batteries of fireworks; and so,
with little good-will, they surrendered themselves for a quarter of an
hour to the guidance and the light sarcastic conversation of the master
of the revels, with whom for the present we shall leave them.

X.--THE FETE.

At length the eventful night arrived--a beautiful, still, star-lit
night. You may fancy the splendor of the more than royal festivities.
What a magnificent levee of gayety, rank, and beauty! What unexampled
illuminations!--what fantastic and inexhaustible ingenuity of
pyrotechnics! How the gorgeous suites of salons laughed with the
brilliant crowd! How the terraces, arched and lined with soft-colored
lamps, re-echoed with gay laughter or murmured flatteries! What an
atmosphere it was of rosy hues, of music, and ceaseless hum of human
enjoyment! For miles around, the wandering peasants beheld the wide,
misty, prismatic circle that overarched the enchanted ground, and heard
the silver harmonies and drumming thunders of the orchestras floating
over the woods, and filling the void darkness with sounds of unseen
festivities. In such a scene all are in good-humor--all wear their best
looks. Each finds his appropriate amusement. The elegant gamester
discovers his cards and his companions; the garrulous find listeners;
the gossip retails, and imbibes, from a hundred sources, all the current
scandal; vanity finds incense--beauty adoration; the young make love, or
dance, or in groups give their spirits play in pleasantries, and
raillery, and peals of animated laughter; their elders listen to the
music, or watch the cards, or in a calmer fashion converse; while all,
each according to hi