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