  And again came radiant June. It was evening, the exquisite hour of twilight. I was alone in my brother's study where I had been for some time; the window was opened wide to a sky all golden and pink, and I stood beside it and listened to the martins uttering their shrill cries as they circled and darted above the old roofs. No one knew that I was there, and never before had I felt so isolated at the top of the house, nor more tempted by the unknown. With a beating heart I opened a volume of De Musset's poems: his Don Paez. The first phrases were as musical and rhythmical as if sung by a seductive golden-voiced siren: Black eyebrows, snow-white hands, and to indicate the tinyness Of her feet, I need only say she was an Andalusian countess. That spring night when the darkness fell about me, when my eyes, although never so close to the book, could no longer distinguish anything of the enchanting verses save rows of little lines that showed gray against the white of the page, I went out into the town alone. In the almost deserted streets, not yet lighted, the rows of linden and acacia trees all abloom, deepened the shadows and perfumed the air with their heavy fragrance. I pulled my felt hat over my eyes and, like Don Paez, I strode along with a light supple step, and looked up at balconies and indulged in I know not what little childish dreams of Spanish twilights and Andalusian serenades. |
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