“Paul had hardly ceased speaking when a woman entered the room. Evidently it was she; dressed in a long blue _peignoir_, she seemed to be at home. I will describe to you in one word the terrible impression she produced on me: she did not seem _natural_. I realise how vague is this expression and how inadequately it explains my meaning. But perhaps it will become more intelligible in the course of my story. But, indeed, in the expression of her golden eyes, that seemed at times to throw out sparks of light, in the curve of her enigmatical mouth, in the substance of her skin, at once brown and yet luminous, in the play of the angular and yet harmonious lines of her body, in the ethereal lightness of her footsteps, even in her bare arms, to which invisible wings seemed attached, and, finally, in her ardent and magnetic personality, I felt an indescribable something foreign to the nature of humanity; an indescribable something inferior and yet superior to the woman God has created in his formidable goodness, so that she should be our companion in this earthly exile. From the moment I saw her one feeling alone overmastered my soul and pervaded it; I felt a profound aversion towards everything that was not this woman. “Seeing her enter, Paul frowned slightly, but changing his mind, he made an effort to smile. “‘Leila, I wish to present to you my best friend.’ “Leila replied: “‘I know M. Ary.’ “These words could not but seem strange as we had certainly never seen each other before; but the voice with which they were uttered was stranger still. “If crystal could utter thought, so it would speak. “‘My friend Ary,’ continued Paul, ‘is to be married in six weeks.’ “At these words Leila looked at me and I saw distinctly that her golden eyes said ‘No!’ “I went away greatly disturbed, nor did my friend show the slightest desire to detain me. All that day I wandered aimlessly through the streets, my heart empty and desolate; then, towards night, finding myself in front of a florist’s shop, I remembered my _fiancée_, and went in to get her a spray of white lilac. I had hardly taken hold of the flowers when a little hand tore them out of my grasp, and I saw Leila, who turned away laughing. She wore a short grey dress and a jacket of the same colour and a small round hat. I must confess that this costume of a Parisian dressed for walking was most unbecoming to her fairy-like beauty and seemed a kind of disguise. And yet, seeing her so, I felt that I loved her with an undying love. I tried to rejoin her, but I lost her among the crowd and the carriages.