l for a moment, but her expression did not change. Then she
passed swiftly away, and my hair stood up on my head, while the cold
breeze from her white dress was wafted to my temples as she moved. The
moonlight, shining through the tossing spray of the fountain, made
traceries of shadow on the gleaming folds of her garments. In an
instant she was gone and I was alone.

I was strangely shaken by the vision, and some time passed before I
could rise to my feet, for I was still weak from my illness, and the
sight I had seen would have startled any one. I did not reason with
myself, for I was certain that I had looked on the unearthly, and no
argument could have destroyed that belief. At last I got up and stood
unsteadily, gazing in the direction in which I thought the face had
gone; but there was nothing to be seen--nothing but the broad paths,
the tall, dark evergreen hedges, the tossing water of the fountains and
the smooth pool below. I fell back upon the seat and recalled the face
I had seen. Strange to say, now that the first impression had passed,
there was nothing startling in the recollection; on the contrary, I
felt that I was fascinated by the face, and would give anything to see
it again. I could retrace the beautiful straight features, the long
dark eyes, and the wonderful mouth most exactly in my mind, and when I
had reconstructed every detail from memory I knew that the whole was
beautiful, and that I should love a woman with such a face.

"I wonder whether she is the Woman of the Water!" I said to myself.
Then rising once more, I wandered down the garden, descending one short
flight of steps after another from terrace to terrace by the edge of
the marble basins, through the shadow and through the moonlight; and I
crossed the water by the rustic bridge above the artificial grotto, and
climbed slowly up again to the highest terrace by the other side. The
air seemed sweeter, and I was very calm, so that I think I smiled to
myself as I walked, as though a new happiness had come to me. The
woman's face seemed always before me, and the thought of it gave me an
unwonted thrill of pleasure, unlike anything I had ever felt before.

I turned as I reached the house, and looked back upon the scene. It
had certainly changed in the short hour since I had come out, and my
mood had changed with it. Just like my luck, I thought, to fall in
love with a ghost! But in old times I would have sighed; and gone to
bed