old saint denis cemetery lay drowsing in the blue, faint twilight. it has no graves as we know them, for when the city was laid out it was below sea-level and bodies were stored away in crypts set row on row like lines of pigeon-holes in walls as thick as those of medi?val castles. grass-grown aisles run between the rows of vaults, and the effect is a true city of the dead with narrow streets shut in by close-set houses. the rattle of a trolley car in rampart street came to me faintly as i walked between the rows of tombs; from the river came the mellow-throated bellow of a steamer's whistle, but both sounds were muted as though heard from a great distance. the tomb-lined bastions of saint denis hold the present out as firmly as they hold the memories of the past within.
"down one aisle and up another i walked, the close-clipped turf deadening my footfalls so i might have been a ghost come back to haunt the ancient burial ground, but nowhere was there sign or trace of julie. i made the circuit of the labyrinth and finally paused before one of the more pretentious tombs.
"'looks as if she'd stood me up,' i murmured. 'if she has, i have a good excuse to——'
"'but non, mon coeur, i have not disappointed you!' a soft voice whispered in my ear. 'see, i am here.'
"i think i must have jumped at sound of her greeting, for she clapped her hands delightedly before she put them on my shoulders and turned her face up for a kiss. 'silly one,' she chided, 'did you think your julie was unfaithful?'
"i put her hands away as gently as i could, for her utter self-surrender was embarrassing. 'where were you?' i asked, striving to make neutral conversation. 'i've been prowling round this graveyard for the last half-hour, and came through this aisle not a minute ago, but i didn't see you——'
"'ah, but i saw you, chéri; i have watched you as you made your solemn rounds like a watchman of the night. ohé, but it was hard to wait until the sun went down to greet you, mon petit!'
"she laughed again, and her mirth was mellowly musical as the gurgle of cool water poured from a silver vase.
"'how could you have seen me?' i demanded. 'where were you all this time?'
"but here, of course,' she answered na?vely, resting one hand against the graystone slab that sealed the tomb.
"i shook my head bewilderedly. the tomb, like all the others in the deeply recessed wall, was of rough cement incrusted with small seashells, and its sides were straight and blank without a spear of ivy clinging to them. a sparrow could not have found cover there, yet....
"julie raised herself on tiptoe and stretched her arms out right and left while she looked at me through half-closed, smiling eyes. 'je suis engourdie—i am stiff with sleep,' she told me, stifling a yawn. 'but now that you are come, mon cher, i am wakeful as the pussy-cat that rouses at the scampering of the mouse. come, let us walk in this garden of mine.' she linked her arm through mine and started down the grassy, grave-lined path.
"tiny shivers—not of cold—were flickering through my cheeks and down my neck beneath my ears. i had to have an explanation ... the snake, her declaration that she watched me as i searched the cemetery—and from a tomb where a beetle could not have found a hiding-place—her announcement she was still stiff from sleeping, now her reference to a half-forgotten graveyard as her garden.
"'see here, i want to know——' i started, but she laid her hand across my lips.
"'do not ask to know too soon, mon coeur,' she bade. 'look at me, am i not veritably élégante?' she stood back a step, gathered up her skirts and swept me a deep curtsy.
"there was no denying she was beautiful. her tightly curling hair had been combed high and tied back with a fillet of bright violet tissue which bound her brows like a diadem and at the front of which an aigret plume was set. in her ears were hung two beautifully matched cameos, outlined in gold and seed-pearls, and almost large as silver dollars; a necklace of antique dull-gold hung round her throat, and its pendant was a duplicate of her ear-cameos, while a bracelet of matt-gold set with a fourth matched anaglyph was clasped about her left arm just above the elbow. her gown was sheer white muslin, low cut at front and back, with little puff-sleeves at the shoulders, fitted tightly at the bodice and flaring sharply from a high-set waist. over it she wore a narrow scarf of violet silk, hung behind her neck and dropping down on either side in front like a clergyman's stole. her sandals were gilt leather, heel-less as a ballet dancer's shoes and laced with violet ribbons. her lovely, pearl-white hands were bare of rings, but on the second toe of her right foot there showed a little cameo which matched the others which she wore.
"i could feel my heart begin to pound and my breath come quicker as i looked at her, but:
"'you look as if you're going to a masquerade,' i said.
"a look of hurt surprize showed in her eyes. 'a masquerade?' she echoed. 'but no, it is my best, my very finest, that i wear for you tonight, mon adoré. do not you like it; do you not love me, édouard?'
"'no,' i answered shortly, 'i do not. we might as well understand each other, julie. i'm not in love with you and i never was. it's been a pretty flirtation, nothing more. i'm going home tomorrow, and——'
"'but you will come again? surely you will come again?' she pleaded, 'you cannot mean it when you say you do not love me, édouard. tell me that you spoke so but to tease me——'
"a warning hiss sounded in the grass beside my foot, but i was too angry to be frightened. 'go ahead, set your devilish snake on me,' i taunted. 'let it bite me. i'd as soon be dead as——'
"the snake was quick, but julie quicker. in the split-second required for the thing to drive at me she leaped across the grass-grown aisle and pushed me back. so violent was the shove she gave me that i fell against the tomb, struck my head against a small projecting stone and stumbled to my knees. as i fought for footing on the slippery grass i saw the deadly, wedge-shaped head strike full against the girl's bare ankle and heard her gasp with pain. the snake recoiled and swung its head toward me, but julie dropped down to her knees and spread her arms protectingly about me.
"'non, non, grand'tante!' she screamed; 'not this one! let me——' her voice broke on a little gasp and with a retching hiccup she sank limply to the grass.
"i tried to rise, but my foot slipped on the grass and i fell back heavily against the tomb, crashing my brow against its shell-set cement wall. i saw julie lying in a little huddled heap of white against the blackness of the sward, and, shadowy but clearly visible, an aged, wrinkled negress with turbaned head and cambric apron bending over her, nursing her head against her bosom and rocking back and forth grotesquely while she crooned a wordless threnody. where had she come from? i wondered idly. where had the snake gone? why did the moonlight seem to fade and flicker like a dying lamp? once more i tried to rise, but slipped back to the grass before the tomb as everything went black before me.
"the lavender light of early morning was streaming over the tomb-walls of the cemetery when i waked. i lay quiet for a little while, wondering sleepily how i came there. then, just as the first rays of the sun shot through the thinning shadows, i remembered. julie! the snake had bitten her when she flung herself before me. she was gone; the old negress—where had she come from?—was gone, too, and i was utterly alone in the old graveyard.
"stiff from lying on the ground, i got myself up awkwardly, grasping at the flower-shelf projecting from the tomb. as my eyes came level with the slab that sealed the crypt i felt the breath catch in my throat. the crypt, like all its fellows, looked for all the world like an old oven let into a brick wall overlaid with peeling plaster. the sealing-stone was probably once white, but years had stained it to a dirty gray, and time had all but rubbed its legend out. still, i could see the faint inscription carved in quaint, old-fashioned letters, and disbelief gave way to incredulity, which was replaced by panic terror as i read:
ici repose malheureusement
julie amelie marie d'ayen
nationale de paris france
née le 29 aout 1788
décédée a la n o le 2 juillet 1807
"julie! little julie whom i'd held in my arms, whose mouth had lain on mine in eager kisses, was a corpse! dead and in her grave more than a century!"
