Deliver me from my prison! Giveme human life, human happiness, only a short span, only the one night,if it cannot be otherwise; and then punish me for my wish to live,my longing for life! Strike me out of thy list. Let my shell, thefresh young tree, wither, or be hewn down, and burnt to ashes, andscattered to all the winds!"
  A rustling went through the leaves of the tree; there was atrembling in each of the leaves; it seemed as if fire streamed throughit. A gust of wind shook its green crown, and from the midst of thatcrown a female figure came forth. In the same moment she was sittingbeneath the brightly-illuminated leafy branches, young and beautifulto behold, like poor Mary, to whom the clergyman had said, "Thegreat city will be thy destruction."
  The Dryad sat at the foot of the tree- at her house door, whichshe had locked, and whose key had thrown away. So young! so fair!The stars saw her, and blinked at her. The gas-lamps saw her, andgleamed and beckoned to her. How delicate she was, and yet howblooming!- a child, and yet a grown maiden! Her dress was fine assilk, green as the freshly-opened leaves on the crown of the tree;in her nut-brown hair clung a half-opened chestnut blossom. She lookedlike the Goddess of Spring.
  For one short minute she sat motionless; then she sprang up,and, light as a gazelle, she hurried away. She ran and sprang like thereflection from the mirror that, carried by the sunshine, is cast, nowhere, now there. Could any one have followed her with his eyes, hewould have seen how marvellously her dress and her form changed,according to the nature of the house or the place whose light happenedto shine upon her.
  She reached the Boulevards. Here a sea of light streamed forthfrom the gas-flames of the lamps, the shops and the cafes. Herestood in a row young and slender trees, each of which concealed itsDryad, and gave shade from the artificial sunlight. The whole vastpavement was one great festive hall, where covered tables stoodladen with refreshments of all kinds, from champagne and Chartreusedown to coffee and beer. Here was an exhibition of flowers, statues,books, and colored stuffs.
  From the crowd close by the lofty houses she looked forth over theterrific stream beyond the rows of trees. Yonder heaved a stream ofrolling carriages, cabriolets, coaches, omnibuses, cabs, and amongthem riding gentlemen and marching troops. To cross to the oppositeshore was an undertaking fraught with danger to life and limb. Nowlanterns shed their radiance abroad; now the gas had the upper hand;suddenly a rocket rises! Whence? Whither?
  Here are sounds of soft Italian melodies; yonder, Spanish songsare sung, accompanied by the rattle of the castanets; but strongest ofall, and predominating over the rest, the street-organ tunes of themoment, the exciting "Can-Can" music, which Orpheus never knew, andwhich was never heard by the "Belle Helene." Even the barrow wastempted to hop upon one of its wheels.
  The Dryad danced, floated, flew, changing her color everymoment, like a humming-bird in the sunshine; each house, with theworld belonging to it, gave her its own reflections.
  As the glowing lotus-flower, torn from its stem, is carried awayby the stream, so the Dryad drifted along. Whenever she paused, shewas another being, so that none was able to follow her, to recognizeher, or to look more closely at her.
  Like cloud-pictures, all things flew by her. She looked into athousand faces, but not one was familiar to her; she saw not asingle form from home. Two bright eyes had remained in her memory. Shethought of Mary, poor Mary, the ragged merry child, who wore the redflowers in her black hair. Mary was now here, in the world-city,rich and magnificent as in that day when she drove past the house ofthe old clergyman, and past the tree of the Dryad, the old oak.
  Here she was certainly living, in the deafening tumult. Perhapsshe had just stepped out of one of the gorgeous carriages inwaiting. Handsome equipages, with coachmen in gold braid and footmenin silken hose, drove up. The people who alighted from them were allrichly-dressed ladies. They went through the opened gate, and ascendedthe broad staircase that led to a building resting on marblepillars. Was this building, perhaps, the wonder of the world?