The bird ceased.  The cause of the interruption, standing within the opening, saw before him, much obscured by its own numerous shadows, a broad, ill-kept, many-flowered garden, among whose untrimmed rose-trees and tangled vines, and often, also, in its old walks of pounded shell, the coco-grass and crab-grass had spread riotously, and sturdy weeds stood up in bloom.  He stepped in and drew the gate to after him.  There, very near by, was the clump of jasmine, whose ravishing odor had tempted him.  It stood just beyond a brightly moonlit path, which turned from him in a curve toward the residence, a little distance to the right, and escaped the view at a point where it seemed more than likely a door of the house might open upon it.  While he still looked, there fell upon his ear, from around that curve, a light footstep on the broken shells—­one only, and then all was for a moment still again.  Had he mistaken?  No.  The same soft click was repeated nearer by, a pale glimpse of robes came through the tangle, and then, plainly to view, appeared an outline—­a presence—­a form—­a spirit—­a girl!

From throat to instep she was as white as Cynthia.  Something above the medium height, slender, lithe, her abundant hair rolling in dark, rich waves back from her brows and down from her crown, and falling in two heavy plaits beyond her round, broadly girt waist and full to her knees, a few escaping locks eddying lightly on her graceful neck and her temples,—­her arms, half hid in a snowy mist of sleeve, let down to guide her spotless skirts free from the dewy touch of the grass,—­straight down the path she came!

Will she stop?  Will she turn aside?  Will she espy the dark form in the deep shade of the orange, and, with one piercing scream, wheel and vanish?  She draws near.  She approaches the jasmine; she raises her arms, the sleeves falling like a vapor down to the shoulders; rises upon tiptoe, and plucks a spray.  O Memory!  Can it be? Can it be?  Is this his quest, or is it lunacy?  The ground seems to Monsieur Vignevielle the unsteady sea, and he to stand once more on a deck.  And she?  As she is now, if she but turn toward the orange, the whole glory of the moon will shine upon her face.  His heart stands still; he is waiting for her to do that.  She reaches up again; this time a bunch for her mother.  That neck and throat!  Now she fastens a spray in her hair.  The mockingbird cannot withhold; he breaks into song—­she turns—­she turns her face—­it is she, it is she!  Madame Delphine’s daughter is the girl he met on the ship.

CHAPTER IX.

OLIVE