The Giitter on the Snow 77
There was in this, however, hardly any element of
joy. I was back to my normal self, but not to what
you might call good form. I was perfectly able to do
anything required, but the idea of doing it didn’t
appeal. I thought a bath and a shower would put me
right; and I certainly felt a very different man by the
time I had got my clothes on. ,
When I came back into the sitting-room, I found
Lou dancing daintily round the table. She went for
me like a bull at a gate; swept me away to the couch
and knelt at my side as I lay, while she overwhelmed
me with passionate kisses.
She divined that I was not in any condition to
respond.
“You still need your nurse,” she laughed merrily,
with sparkling eyes. and flashing teeth and nostrils
twitching with excitement. I saw on the tip of one
delicious little curling hair a crystal glimmer that I knew.
She had been out in the snowstorm !
_ My cunning twisted smile told her that I was wise
to the game.
“Yes,” she said excitedly, ‘‘I see how it’s done
now. You pull yourself together with H. and then
you start the buzz-wagon with C. Come along, put
in the clutch.” , ,
Her hand was trembling with excitement. But on
the back of it there shimmered a tiny heap of glistening
snow.
I sniffed it with suppressed ecstasy. I knew that it
was only a matter of seconds before I caught the con-
tagion of her crazy and sublime intoxication.
Who was it that said you had only to put salt on
the tail of a bird, and then you could catch it ? Probably
that fellow thought that he knew all about it, but he
got the whole thing wrong. What you have to do is
to get snow up your own nose, and then you can catch
the bird all right.
What did Maeterlinck know about that silly old
Blue Bird?