went along a green alley some little distance away, so slowly that
the friends had time to take a good look at her. She wore a threadbare
black satin gown, her long hair curled thickly over her forehead, and
fell like a shawl about her shoulders below her waist. Doubtless she was
accustomed to the dishevelment of her locks, for she seldom put back
the hair on either side of her brows; but when she did so, she shook her
head with a sudden jerk that had not to be repeated to shake away
the thick veil from her eyes or forehead. In everything that she
did, moreover, there was a wonderful certainty in the working of the
mechanism, an unerring swiftness and precision, like that of an animal,
well-nigh marvelous in a woman.

The two sportsmen were amazed to see her spring up into an apple-tree
and cling to a bough lightly as a bird. She snatched at the fruit, ate
it, and dropped to the ground with the same supple grace that charms
us in a squirrel. The elasticity of her limbs took all appearance of
awkwardness or effort from her movements. She played about upon the
grass, rolling in it as a young child might have done; then, on a
sudden, she lay still and stretched out her feet and hands, with the
languid natural grace of a kitten dozing in the sun.

There was a threatening growl of thunder far away, and at this she
started up on all fours and listened, like a dog who hears a strange
footstep. One result of this strange attitude was to separate her thick
black hair into two masses, that fell away on either side of her face
and left her shoulders bare; the two witnesses of this singular scene
wondered at the whiteness of the skin that shone like a meadow daisy,
and at the neck that indicated the perfection of the rest of her form.

A wailing cry broke from her; she rose to her feet, and stood upright.
Every successive movement was made so lightly, so gracefully, so easily,
that she seemed to be no human being, but one of Ossian's maids of the
mist. She went across the grass to one of the pools of water, deftly
shook off her shoe, and seemed to enjoy dipping her foot, white as
marble, in the spring; doubtless it pleased her to make the circling
ripples, and watch them glitter like gems. She knelt down by the brink,
and played there like a child, dabbling her long tresses in the water,
and flinging them loose again to see the water drip from the ends, like
a string of pearls in the sunless light.

"She is mad!" cried the Coun