thought I should like to have a peep at her and her companion. I
could see that the door was partly open. Taking off my slippers, I
ran softly down and found it wide enough open to admit of my seeing
the entire room and occupants in the looking-glass, that being
opposite. It was quite dark in the little hall and I should be
unobserved. So I crept--most rudely I am willing to say--into the
furthest shadow of this hall and looked straight before me.
I saw none but Delle Josephine herself. But she was a sight for the
gods. Seated on a kind of ottoman, directly in front of the
looking-glass, she was holding an animated conversation with _herself_,
wearing a large white antimacassar--one of those crocheted things
all in wheels--pinned under her chin and falling away at the back
like a cloak, and upon her head--the wonderful scarlet hat! I was
amazed, startled, dismayed. To see that shrivelled little old woman
so travestying her hideous charms, smiling at and bowing to herself,
her yellow skin forming a frightful contrast to the intense red of
her immense hat and her bright black eyes, was a pitiful and unique
spectacle. I had intended but to take a peep at the supposed visitor
and then go back to my room, but the present sight was one which
fascinated me to such an extent that I could only look and wonder.
She spoke softly to herself in French, appearing to be carrying on a
conversation with her image in the glass. The feathers of the bird
of paradise swept her shoulder--the one that was higher than the
other--and mingled with the wheels of the white antimacassar. I
looked as long as I dared and then, fearing from her movements that
the strange scene would soon be over I went softly up again to my
room. But I thought about it all evening, all night in fact. The
natural inquiry was--was the poor girl a maniac? Even if only a
harmless one, it would be well to know. As I sat down again by my
fire I considered the matter in every light. It was a queer prospect.
Outside the snow still fell. Inside, the fire languished and the
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