Villette

dark; dusk had come on with clouds, and drops of rain began to patter through the trees. I hoped he would feel this, but, for the moment, he seemed too much absorbed to be sensible of the change.
    »Mademoiselle, do you Protestants believe in the supernatural?«
    »There is a difference of theory and belief on this point amongst Protestants, as amongst other sects,« I answered. »Why, monsieur, do you ask such a question?«
    »Why do you shrink and speak so faintly? Are you superstitious?«
    »I am constitutionally nervous. I dislike the discussion of such subjects. I dislike it the more because –«
    »You believe?«
    »No: but it has happened to me to experience impressions –«
    »Since you came here?«
    »Yes: not many months ago.«
    »Here? – in this house?«
    »Yes.«
    »Bon! I am glad of it. I knew it somehow before you told me. I was conscious of rapport between you and myself. You are patient, and I am choleric; you are quiet and pale, and I am tanned and fiery; you are a strict Protestant, and I am a sort of lay Jesuit: but we are alike – there is affinity. Do you see it, mademoiselle, when you look in the glass? Do you observe that your forehead is shaped like mine – that your eyes are cut like mine? Do you hear that you have some of my tones of voice? Do you know that you have many of my looks? I perceive all this, and believe that you were born under my star. Yes, you were born under my star! Tremble! for where that is the case with mortals, the threads of their destinies are difficult to disentangle; knot-tings and catchings occur – sudden breaks leave damage in the web. But these ›impressions,‹ as you say, with English caution. I, too, have had my ›impressions.‹«
    »Monsieur, tell me them.«
    »I desire no better, and intend no less. You know the legend of this house and garden?«
    »I know it. Yes. They say that hundreds of years ago a nun was buried here alive at the foot of this very tree, beneath the ground which now bears us.«
    »And that in former days a nun's ghost used to come and go here.«
    »Monsieur, what if it comes and goes here still?«
    »Something comes and goes here: there is a shape frequenting this house by night, different to any forms that show themselves by day. I have indisputably seen a something, more than once; and to me its conventual weeds were a strange sight, saying more than they can do to any other living being. A nun!«
    »Monsieur, I, too, have seen it.«
    »I anticipated that. Whether this nun be flesh and blood, or something that remains when blood is dried and flesh wasted, her business is as much with you as with me, probably. Well, I mean to make it out: it has baffled me so far, but I mean to follow up the mystery. I mean –«
    Instead of telling what he meant, he raised his head suddenly; I made the same movement in the same instant; we both looked to one point – the high tree shadowing the great berceau, and resting some of its boughs on the roof of the first classe. There had been a strange and inexplicable sound from that quarter, as if the arms of that tree had swayed of their own motion, and its weight of foliage had rushed and crushed against the massive trunk. Yes; there scarce stirred a breeze, and that heavy tree was convulsed, whilst the feathery shrubs stood still. For some minutes amongst the wood and leafage a rending and heaving went on. Dark as it was, it seemed to me that something more solid than either night-shadow, or branch-shadow, blackened out of the boles. At last the struggle ceased. What birth succeeded this travail? What Dryad was born of these throes? We watched fixedly. A sudden bell rang in the house – the prayer-bell. Instantly into our alley there came, out of the berceau, an apparition, all black and white. With a sort of angry rush – close, close past our faces – swept swiftly the very NUN herself! Never had I seen her so clearly. She looked tall of stature, and fierce of gesture. As she went, the wind rose sobbing; the rain poured wild and cold; the whole night seemed to feel her.
     
     
Chapter XXXII
The First Letter
    Where, it becomes time to inquire, was Paulina Mary? How fared my intercourse with the sumptuous Hotel Crécy? That intercourse had, for an interval, been suspended by absence; M. and Miss de Bassompierre had been travelling, dividing some weeks between the provinces and the capital of France. Chance apprised me of their return very shortly after it took place.
    I was walking one