IV. Her Habits--A Saunter IV. Os seus hábitos - Um passeio IV. Ее привычки - прогулка IV. Alışkanlıkları - Bir Gezinti

I told you that I was charmed with her in most particulars. Je vous ai dit que j'étais charmé d'elle dans la plupart des détails.

There were some that did not please me so well.

She was above the middle height of women. Elle était au-dessus de la taille moyenne des femmes. I shall begin by describing her.

She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languid--very languid--indeed, there was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid. Sauf que ses mouvements étaient langoureux – très langoureux – en effet, rien dans son apparence n'indiquait une invalide. Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her features were small and beautifully formed; her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; her hair was quite wonderful, I never saw hair so magnificently thick and long when it was down about her shoulders; I have often placed my hands under it, and laughed with wonder at its weight. It was exquisitely fine and soft, and in color a rich very dark brown, with something of gold. I loved to let it down, tumbling with its own weight, as, in her room, she lay back in her chair talking in her sweet low voice, I used to fold and braid it, and spread it out and play with it. J'aimais le laisser tomber, culbuter avec son propre poids, car, dans sa chambre, elle s'allongeait sur sa chaise en parlant de sa douce voix basse, je le pliais et le tressait, je l'étalais et je jouais avec. Heavens! If I had but known all!

I said there were particulars which did not please me. I have told you that her confidence won me the first night I saw her; but I found that she exercised with respect to herself, her mother, her history, everything in fact connected with her life, plans, and people, an ever wakeful reserve. Je vous ai dit que sa confiance m'a gagné la première nuit où je l'ai vue ; mais je trouvai qu'elle exerçait à l'égard d'elle-même, de sa mère, de son histoire, de tout ce qui se rapportait en fait à sa vie, à ses projets et à ses gens, une réserve toujours éveillée. I dare say I was unreasonable, perhaps I was wrong; I dare say I ought to have respected the solemn injunction laid upon my father by the stately lady in black velvet. J'ose dire que j'étais déraisonnable, peut-être que j'avais tort ; J'ose dire que j'aurais dû respecter l'injonction solennelle faite à mon père par la noble dame en velours noir. But curiosity is a restless and unscrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, with patience, that hers should be baffled by another. Mais la curiosité est une passion agitée et sans scrupules, et aucune fille ne peut supporter, avec patience, que la sienne soit déroutée par une autre. What harm could it do anyone to tell me what I so ardently desired to know? Quel mal cela pouvait-il faire à quelqu'un de me dire ce que je désirais si ardemment savoir ? Had she no trust in my good sense or honor? N'avait-elle pas confiance en mon bon sens ou mon honneur ? Why would she not believe me when I assured her, so solemnly, that I would not divulge one syllable of what she told me to any mortal breathing.

There was a coldness, it seemed to me, beyond her years, in her smiling melancholy persistent refusal to afford me the least ray of light. Il y avait une froideur, me semblait-il, au-delà de son âge, dans son sourire mélancolique persistant refusant de m'offrir le moindre rayon de lumière.

I cannot say we quarreled upon this point, for she would not quarrel upon any. Je ne puis dire que nous nous disputions sur ce point, car elle ne voulait se quereller sur aucun. It was, of course, very unfair of me to press her, very ill-bred, but I really could not help it; and I might just as well have let it alone. C'était, bien sûr, très injuste de ma part de la presser, très mal élevée, mais je ne pouvais vraiment pas m'en empêcher ; et j'aurais tout aussi bien pu le laisser tranquille.

What she did tell me amounted, in my unconscionable estimation--to nothing. Ce qu'elle m'a dit équivalait, à mon avis déraisonnable, à rien.

It was all summed up in three very vague disclosures:

First--Her name was Carmilla.

Second--Her family was very ancient and noble.

Third--Her home lay in the direction of the west.

She would not tell me the name of her family, nor their armorial bearings, nor the name of their estate, nor even that of the country they lived in. Elle ne voulait pas me dire le nom de sa famille, ni leurs armoiries, ni le nom de leur domaine, ni même celui du pays où ils vivaient.

You are not to suppose that I worried her incessantly on these subjects. Vous ne devez pas supposer que je l'inquiétais sans cesse sur ces sujets. I watched opportunity, and rather insinuated than urged my inquiries. J'ai observé l'opportunité, et j'ai plutôt insinué que poussé mes recherches. Once or twice, indeed, I did attack her more directly. But no matter what my tactics, utter failure was invariably the result. Reproaches and caresses were all lost upon her. Les reproches et les caresses étaient perdus pour elle. But I must add this, that her evasion was conducted with so pretty a melancholy and deprecation, with so many, and even passionate declarations of her liking for me, and trust in my honor, and with so many promises that I should at last know all, that I could not find it in my heart long to be offended with her. Mais je dois ajouter ceci, que son évasion a été menée avec une si jolie mélancolie et dépréciation, avec tant, et même des déclarations passionnées de son amour pour moi, et sa confiance en mon honneur, et avec tant de promesses que je devrais enfin savoir tout, que je ne pouvais pas trouver dans mon cœur long à être offensé avec elle.

She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur with her lips near my ear, "Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die--die, sweetly die--into mine. Dans le ravissement de mon énorme humiliation, je vis dans votre vie chaleureuse, et vous mourrez - mourrez, mourrez doucement - dans la mienne. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me with all your loving spirit." Je ne peux pas l'aider; tandis que je m'approche de toi, toi, à ton tour, tu t'approcheras des autres, et apprendras le ravissement de cette cruauté, qui est pourtant l'amour ; alors, pendant un moment, ne cherche plus à en savoir plus sur moi et sur les miens, mais fais-moi confiance de tout ton esprit d'amour." And when she had spoken such a rhapsody, she would press me more closely in her trembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek. Et quand elle avait dit une telle rhapsodie, elle me serrait plus étroitement dans son étreinte tremblante, et ses lèvres en doux baisers luisaient doucement sur ma joue.

Her agitations and her language were unintelligible to me.

From these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence, I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself; but my energies seemed to fail me. Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear, and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her arms.

In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. J'éprouvais une étrange excitation tumultueuse qui était agréable, de temps à autre, mêlée à un vague sentiment de peur et de dégoût. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. Je n'avais pas de pensées distinctes à son sujet pendant que de telles scènes duraient, mais j'étais conscient d'un amour qui se transformait en adoration, et aussi en horreur. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling.

I now write, after an interval of more than ten years, with a trembling hand, with a confused and horrible recollection of certain occurrences and situations, in the ordeal through which I was unconsciously passing; though with a vivid and very sharp remembrance of the main current of my story. J'écris maintenant, après un intervalle de plus de dix ans, d'une main tremblante, avec un souvenir confus et horrible de certains événements et situations, dans l'épreuve par laquelle je passais inconsciemment ; mais avec un souvenir vif et très vif du courant principal de mon histoire.

But, I suspect, in all lives there are certain emotional scenes, those in which our passions have been most wildly and terribly roused, that are of all others the most vaguely and dimly remembered. Mais, je soupçonne, dans toutes les vies, il y a certaines scènes émotionnelles, celles dans lesquelles nos passions ont été le plus sauvagement et le plus terriblement excitées, qui sont de toutes les autres les plus vaguement et les plus obscurément rappelées.

Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardor of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever." Then she had thrown herself back in her chair, with her small hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling.

"Are we related," I used to ask; "what can you mean by all this? « Sommes-nous apparentés ? » demandais-je ; « Que veux-tu dire par tout ça ? I remind you perhaps of someone whom you love; but you must not, I hate it; I don't know you--I don't know myself when you look so and talk so." Je te rappelle peut-être quelqu'un que tu aimes ; mais il ne faut pas, je le hais ; Je ne te connais pas, je ne me connais pas moi-même quand tu as l'air ainsi et que tu parles ainsi." She used to sigh at my vehemence, then turn away and drop my hand.

Respecting these very extraordinary manifestations I strove in vain to form any satisfactory theory--I could not refer them to affectation or trick. It was unmistakably the momentary breaking out of suppressed instinct and emotion. C'était incontestablement la rupture momentanée d'un instinct et d'une émotion refoulés. Was she, notwithstanding her mother's volunteered denial, subject to brief visitations of insanity; or was there here a disguise and a romance? Était-elle, malgré le refus volontaire de sa mère, sujette à de brèves visites de folie ; ou y avait-il là un déguisement et une romance ? I had read in old storybooks of such things. What if a boyish lover had found his way into the house, and sought to prosecute his suit in masquerade, with the assistance of a clever old adventuress. Et si un amant de garçon avait trouvé son chemin dans la maison et avait cherché à poursuivre son procès en mascarade, avec l'aide d'une vieille aventurière intelligente. But there were many things against this hypothesis, highly interesting as it was to my vanity.

I could boast of no little attentions such as masculine gallantry delights to offer. Je pouvais me vanter de ne pas offrir de petites attentions telles que des délices de galanterie masculine à offrir. Between these passionate moments there were long intervals of commonplace, of gaiety, of brooding melancholy, during which, except that I detected her eyes so full of melancholy fire, following me, at times I might have been as nothing to her. Entre ces moments passionnés, il y avait de longs intervalles de banalité, de gaieté, de sombre mélancolie, pendant lesquels, sauf que je devinais ses yeux si pleins d'un feu mélancolique, me suivant, parfois j'aurais pu n'être rien pour elle. Except in these brief periods of mysterious excitement her ways were girlish; and there was always a languor about her, quite incompatible with a masculine system in a state of health. Sauf dans ces brèves périodes d'excitation mystérieuse, ses manières étaient enfantines ; et il y avait toujours chez elle une langueur, tout à fait incompatible avec un système masculin en bonne santé.

In some respects her habits were odd. Perhaps not so singular in the opinion of a town lady like you, as they appeared to us rustic people. Peut-être pas si singulier de l'avis d'une dame de la ville comme vous, qu'ils nous paraissaient rustiques. She used to come down very late, generally not till one o'clock, she would then take a cup of chocolate, but eat nothing; we then went out for a walk, which was a mere saunter, and she seemed, almost immediately, exhausted, and either returned to the schloss or sat on one of the benches that were placed, here and there, among the trees. This was a bodily languor in which her mind did not sympathize. C'était une langueur corporelle dans laquelle son esprit ne sympathisait pas. She was always an animated talker, and very intelligent.

She sometimes alluded for a moment to her own home, or mentioned an adventure or situation, or an early recollection, which indicated a people of strange manners, and described customs of which we knew nothing. I gathered from these chance hints that her native country was much more remote than I had at first fancied. J'ai compris de ces allusions fortuites que son pays natal était beaucoup plus éloigné que je ne l'avais d'abord imaginé.

As we sat thus one afternoon under the trees a funeral passed us by. It was that of a pretty young girl, whom I had often seen, the daughter of one of the rangers of the forest. C'était celui d'une jolie jeune fille que j'avais souvent vue, la fille d'un des gardes forestiers. The poor man was walking behind the coffin of his darling; she was his only child, and he looked quite heartbroken.

Peasants walking two-and-two came behind, they were singing a funeral hymn.

I rose to mark my respect as they passed, and joined in the hymn they were very sweetly singing.

My companion shook me a little roughly, and I turned surprised. Mon compagnon m'a secoué un peu brutalement, et je suis devenu surpris.

She said brusquely, "Don't you perceive how discordant that is?" Elle dit brusquement : « Ne voyez-vous pas à quel point c'est discordant ? "I think it very sweet, on the contrary," I answered, vexed at the interruption, and very uncomfortable, lest the people who composed the little procession should observe and resent what was passing. — Je le trouve très doux, au contraire, répondis-je, vexé de l'interruption et très mal à l'aise, de peur que les gens qui composaient le petit cortège n'observent et ne ressentent ce qui se passait. I resumed, therefore, instantly, and was again interrupted. "You pierce my ears," said Carmilla, almost angrily, and stopping her ears with her tiny fingers. « Vous me percez les oreilles », a déclaré Carmilla, presque en colère, et en se bouchant les oreilles avec ses petits doigts. "Besides, how can you tell that your religion and mine are the same; your forms wound me, and I hate funerals. What a fuss! Quelle agitation ! Why you must die--everyone must die; and all are happier when they do. Come home." "My father has gone on with the clergyman to the churchyard. I thought you knew she was to be buried today." "She? I don't trouble my head about peasants. I don't know who she is," answered Carmilla, with a flash from her fine eyes. "She is the poor girl who fancied she saw a ghost a fortnight ago, and has been dying ever since, till yesterday, when she expired." "C'est la pauvre fille qui a cru avoir vu un fantôme il y a quinze jours et qui est morte depuis, jusqu'à hier, quand elle a expiré." "Tell me nothing about ghosts. I shan't sleep tonight if you do." "I hope there is no plague or fever coming; all this looks very like it," I continued. "J'espère qu'il n'y a pas de peste ou de fièvre à venir; tout cela y ressemble beaucoup", continuai-je. "The swineherd's young wife died only a week ago, and she thought something seized her by the throat as she lay in her bed, and nearly strangled her. « La jeune épouse du porcher est décédée il y a seulement une semaine, et elle a pensé que quelque chose l'avait prise à la gorge alors qu'elle était allongée dans son lit, et l'a presque étranglée. Papa says such horrible fancies do accompany some forms of fever. She was quite well the day before. She sank afterwards, and died before a week." "Well, her funeral is over, I hope, and her hymn sung; and our ears shan't be tortured with that discord and jargon. It has made me nervous. Sit down here, beside me; sit close; hold my hand; press it hard-hard-harder." We had moved a little back, and had come to another seat. Nous avions reculé un peu et étions venus à un autre siège.

She sat down. Her face underwent a change that alarmed and even terrified me for a moment. It darkened, and became horribly livid; her teeth and hands were clenched, and she frowned and compressed her lips, while she stared down upon the ground at her feet, and trembled all over with a continued shudder as irrepressible as ague. Elle s'assombrit et devint horriblement livide ; ses dents et ses mains étaient serrées, et elle fronça les sourcils et serra ses lèvres, tandis qu'elle fixait le sol à ses pieds, et tremblait partout avec un frisson continu aussi irrépressible que la fièvre. All her energies seemed strained to suppress a fit, with which she was then breathlessly tugging; and at length a low convulsive cry of suffering broke from her, and gradually the hysteria subsided. Toutes ses énergies semblaient tendues pour réprimer une crise, avec laquelle elle tirait alors à bout de souffle ; et enfin un bas cri convulsif de souffrance s'échappa d'elle, et peu à peu l'hystérie s'apaisa. "There! That comes of strangling people with hymns!" Cela vient d'étrangler les gens avec des hymnes!" she said at last. "Hold me, hold me still. " Tiens-moi, tiens-moi immobile. It is passing away." And so gradually it did; and perhaps to dissipate the somber impression which the spectacle had left upon me, she became unusually animated and chatty; and so we got home.

This was the first time I had seen her exhibit any definable symptoms of that delicacy of health which her mother had spoken of. It was the first time, also, I had seen her exhibit anything like temper. C'était aussi la première fois que je la voyais montrer quelque chose qui ressemblait à de l'humeur.

Both passed away like a summer cloud; and never but once afterwards did I witness on her part a momentary sign of anger. Tous deux sont morts comme un nuage d'été ; et jamais, mais une fois après, je n'ai vu de sa part un signe momentané de colère. I will tell you how it happened.

She and I were looking out of one of the long drawing room windows, when there entered the courtyard, over the drawbridge, a figure of a wanderer whom I knew very well. Elle et moi regardions par l'une des longues fenêtres du salon, quand entra dans la cour, par-dessus le pont-levis, une figure de vagabond que je connaissais très bien. He used to visit the schloss generally twice a year.

It was the figure of a hunchback, with the sharp lean features that generally accompany deformity. C'était la figure d'un bossu, avec les traits secs et maigres qui accompagnent généralement la déformation. He wore a pointed black beard, and he was smiling from ear to ear, showing his white fangs. He was dressed in buff, black, and scarlet, and crossed with more straps and belts than I could count, from which hung all manner of things. Il était vêtu de chamois, de noir et d'écarlate, et traversé de plus de bretelles et de ceintures que je ne pouvais en compter, d'où pendaient toutes sortes de choses. Behind, he carried a magic lantern, and two boxes, which I well knew, in one of which was a salamander, and in the other a mandrake. Derrière, il portait une lanterne magique, et deux boîtes, que je connaissais bien, dans l'une était une salamandre, et dans l'autre une mandragore. These monsters used to make my father laugh. They were compounded of parts of monkeys, parrots, squirrels, fish, and hedgehogs, dried and stitched together with great neatness and startling effect. Ils étaient composés de parties de singes, de perroquets, d'écureuils, de poissons et de hérissons, séchés et cousus ensemble avec une grande netteté et un effet surprenant. He had a fiddle, a box of conjuring apparatus, a pair of foils and masks attached to his belt, several other mysterious cases dangling about him, and a black staff with copper ferrules in his hand. Il avait un violon, une boîte d'appareils de prestidigitation, une paire de fleurets et de masques attachés à sa ceinture, plusieurs autres étuis mystérieux qui pendaient autour de lui, et un bâton noir avec des embouts de cuivre à la main. His companion was a rough spare dog, that followed at his heels, but stopped short, suspiciously at the drawbridge, and in a little while began to howl dismally. Son compagnon était un chien de rechange rugueux, qui le suivait sur ses talons, mais s'arrêta net, méfiant au pont-levis, et en peu de temps se mit à hurler lugubrement.

In the meantime, the mountebank, standing in the midst of the courtyard, raised his grotesque hat, and made us a very ceremonious bow, paying his compliments very volubly in execrable French, and German not much better.

Then, disengaging his fiddle, he began to scrape a lively air to which he sang with a merry discord, dancing with ludicrous airs and activity, that made me laugh, in spite of the dog's howling. Puis, dégageant son violon, il se mit à gratter un air vif sur lequel il chanta avec une joyeuse discorde, dansant avec des airs et une activité grotesques, qui me firent rire, malgré les hurlements du chien. Then he advanced to the window with many smiles and salutations, and his hat in his left hand, his fiddle under his arm, and with a fluency that never took breath, he gabbled a long advertisement of all his accomplishments, and the resources of the various arts which he placed at our service, and the curiosities and entertainments which it was in his power, at our bidding, to display. Puis il s'avança vers la fenêtre avec de nombreux sourires et salutations, et son chapeau dans sa main gauche, son violon sous le bras, et avec une aisance qui ne s'arrêta jamais, il balbutia une longue publicité de toutes ses réalisations, et les ressources de la divers arts qu'il a mis à notre service, et les curiosités et divertissements qu'il était en son pouvoir, à notre demande, de montrer.

"Will your ladyships be pleased to buy an amulet against the oupire, which is going like the wolf, I hear, through these woods," he said dropping his hat on the pavement. "Vos mesdames voudront-elles acheter une amulette contre l'oupire, qui va comme le loup, j'entends, à travers ces bois", dit-il en laissant tomber son chapeau sur le trottoir. "They are dying of it right and left and here is a charm that never fails; only pinned to the pillow, and you may laugh in his face." "Ils en meurent à droite et à gauche et voici un charme qui ne manque jamais; seulement épinglé à l'oreiller, et vous pouvez lui rire au nez." These charms consisted of oblong slips of vellum, with cabalistic ciphers and diagrams upon them. Ces charmes se composaient de bandes oblongues de vélin, avec des chiffres cabalistiques et des diagrammes dessus.

Carmilla instantly purchased one, and so did I.

He was looking up, and we were smiling down upon him, amused; at least, I can answer for myself. His piercing black eye, as he looked up in our faces, seemed to detect something that fixed for a moment his curiosity,

In an instant he unrolled a leather case, full of all manner of odd little steel instruments. En un instant, il déroula un étui en cuir, plein de toutes sortes de petits instruments en acier bizarres.

"See here, my lady," he said, displaying it, and addressing me, "I profess, among other things less useful, the art of dentistry. «Voyez, madame, dit-il en l'étalant et en s'adressant à moi, je professe, entre autres choses moins utiles, l'art de la dentisterie. Plague take the dog!" Peste prends le chien !" he interpolated. il a interpolé. "Silence, beast! He howls so that your ladyships can scarcely hear a word. Il hurle si bien que vos dames entendent à peine un mot. Your noble friend, the young lady at your right, has the sharpest tooth,--long, thin, pointed, like an awl, like a needle; ha, ha! Votre noble amie, la demoiselle à votre droite, a la dent la plus pointue, longue, fine, pointue comme un poinçon, comme une aiguille ; ah, ah ! With my sharp and long sight, as I look up, I have seen it distinctly; now if it happens to hurt the young lady, and I think it must, here am I, here are my file, my punch, my nippers; I will make it round and blunt, if her ladyship pleases; no longer the tooth of a fish, but of a beautiful young lady as she is. Avec ma vue aiguë et longue, en levant les yeux, je l'ai vu distinctement; maintenant s'il arrive à blesser la demoiselle, et je pense qu'il le faut, me voilà, voici ma lime, mon poinçon, mes pinces; Je le rendrai rond et émoussé, s'il plaît à Sa Seigneurie ; non plus la dent d'un poisson, mais d'une belle demoiselle comme elle est. Hey? Is the young lady displeased? Have I been too bold? Ai-je été trop audacieux ? Have I offended her?" The young lady, indeed, looked very angry as she drew back from the window.

"How dares that mountebank insult us so? Where is your father? I shall demand redress from him. Je lui demanderai réparation. My father would have had the wretch tied up to the pump, and flogged with a cart whip, and burnt to the bones with the cattle brand!" Mon père aurait fait attacher le misérable à la pompe, le fouetter avec un fouet de charrette et le brûler jusqu'aux os avec le tison à bestiaux !" She retired from the window a step or two, and sat down, and had hardly lost sight of the offender, when her wrath subsided as suddenly as it had risen, and she gradually recovered her usual tone, and seemed to forget the little hunchback and his follies. Elle s'éloigna de la fenêtre d'un pas ou deux, s'assit, et avait à peine perdu de vue l'agresseur, que sa colère s'apaisa aussi soudainement qu'elle s'était élevée, et elle reprit peu à peu son ton habituel, et sembla oublier le petit bossu et ses folies.

My father was out of spirits that evening. Mon père était de mauvaise humeur ce soir-là. On coming in he told us that there had been another case very similar to the two fatal ones which had lately occurred. The sister of a young peasant on his estate, only a mile away, was very ill, had been, as she described it, attacked very nearly in the same way, and was now slowly but steadily sinking.

"All this," said my father, "is strictly referable to natural causes. These poor people infect one another with their superstitions, and so repeat in imagination the images of terror that have infested their neighbors." Ces pauvres gens s'infectent les uns les autres de leurs superstitions, et répètent ainsi en imagination les images de terreur qui ont infesté leurs voisins." "But that very circumstance frightens one horribly," said Carmilla. "Mais cette circonstance même effraie horriblement", a déclaré Carmilla. "How so?" inquired my father.

"I am so afraid of fancying I see such things; I think it would be as bad as reality." "J'ai tellement peur de m'imaginer voir de telles choses; je pense que ce serait aussi mauvais que la réalité." "We are in God's hands: nothing can happen without his permission, and all will end well for those who love him. He is our faithful creator; He has made us all, and will take care of us." "Creator! Nature!" said the young lady in answer to my gentle father. "And this disease that invades the country is natural. Nature. All things proceed from Nature--don't they? Toutes les choses procèdent de la nature, n'est-ce pas ? All things in the heaven, in the earth, and under the earth, act and live as Nature ordains? Toutes les choses dans le ciel, sur la terre et sous la terre, agissent et vivent comme la nature l'ordonne ? I think so." "The doctor said he would come here today," said my father, after a silence. "I want to know what he thinks about it, and what he thinks we had better do." "Doctors never did me any good," said Carmilla. "Then you have been ill?" I asked.

"More ill than ever you were," she answered. "Long ago?" "Yes, a long time. I suffered from this very illness; but I forget all but my pain and weakness, and they were not so bad as are suffered in other diseases." J'ai souffert de cette maladie même; mais j'oublie tout sauf ma douleur et ma faiblesse, et elles n'étaient pas aussi graves que celles subies dans d'autres maladies." "You were very young then?" "I dare say, let us talk no more of it. You would not wound a friend?" She looked languidly in my eyes, and passed her arm round my waist lovingly, and led me out of the room. My father was busy over some papers near the window.

"Why does your papa like to frighten us?" said the pretty girl with a sigh and a little shudder.

"He doesn't, dear Carmilla, it is the very furthest thing from his mind." "Il ne le fait pas, chère Carmilla, c'est la chose la plus éloignée de son esprit." "Are you afraid, dearest?" "I should be very much if I fancied there was any real danger of my being attacked as those poor people were." "You are afraid to die?" "Yes, every one is." "But to die as lovers may--to die together, so that they may live together. "Mais mourir comme des amants, mourir ensemble, afin qu'ils puissent vivre ensemble. Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see--each with their peculiar propensities, necessities and structure. Les filles sont des chenilles tant qu'elles vivent dans le monde, pour être enfin des papillons quand vient l'été ; mais en attendant il y a des vers et des larves, ne voyez-vous pas, chacun avec ses penchants, ses nécessités et sa structure particuliers. So says Monsieur Buffon, in his big book, in the next room." Later in the day the doctor came, and was closeted with papa for some time.

He was a skilful man, of sixty and upwards, he wore powder, and shaved his pale face as smooth as a pumpkin. C'était un homme habile, de soixante ans et plus, il portait de la poudre et rasait son visage pâle aussi lisse qu'une citrouille. He and papa emerged from the room together, and I heard papa laugh, and say as they came out:

"Well, I do wonder at a wise man like you. "Eh bien, je m'interroge sur un homme sage comme vous. What do you say to hippogriffs and dragons?" The doctor was smiling, and made answer, shaking his head--

"Nevertheless life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either." And so they walked on, and I heard no more. I did not then know what the doctor had been broaching, but I think I guess it now. Je ne savais pas alors ce que le docteur avait abordé, mais je pense que je le devine maintenant.