The Dryad

"

"What are you talking about?" asked the Dryad. "I've never seen you before. What are you talking about?"

"The wonderful old days," said the rat, "the days when Greatgrandfather and Great-grandmother rat were young. At that time it was a great adventure to come down here. Those were the days for the rats of Paris! Mother Pest used to live down here then; she would kill human beings, but never rats. Robbers and smugglers could breathe freely down here. Then this was the asylum for the most fascinating characters I ever saw, such characters as one sees nowadays only in the melodramatic plays. Those romantic days have gone, even for us rats; we have fresh air now - and petroleum!"

Thus the rat squeaked, squeaked over the new times, and in honor of the good old days with Mother Pest.

Now they came to a carriage, a sort of open bus, drawn by two small, lively ponies. The group entered and drove along the Boulevard Sébastopol - that is, along the underground boulevard. Right above them, in Paris, was the real boulevard of that name, crowded with people.

The carriage disappeared in the twilight, and the Dryad disappeared, too, but she came to light again in the fresh, open air under the glare of the gas lamps. Here the wonder was to be found, and not in the damp atmosphere of the crossing and recrossing passages. Here she found the wonder of the world, which she had been seeking in her short lifetime. It burst forth in far richer glory than all the gaslights above, stronger than the moon, which was now gliding by.

Yes, indeed, she saw it greet her; it winked and twinkled like Venus in the heavens.

She saw a brilliant gate open into a little garden gay with light and dance music. Colored gas lamps shone on small artificial lakes and ponds, where water plants, artistically made of bent and painted tinsel, were displayed, and these hurled jets of water high into the air from their chalices, the water sparkling under the brilliant lights. Graceful weeping willows - real, spring weeping willows - trailed their fresh green branches in curving waves, like a transparent and yet screening veil.