She opened her eyes,
and was astonished to find her chamber filled with a clear bright light.
Above the great elms the moon rose slowly, dimming the stars in the pale
sky. Through the window she saw the apse of the cathedral, almost white,
and it seemed to her as if it were the reflection of this whiteness
which entered her room, like the light of the dawn, fresh and pure. The
whitewashed walls and beams, all this blank nudity was increased by it,
enlarged, and moved back as if it were unreal as a dream.
She still recognised, however, the old, dark, oaken furniture--the
wardrobe, the chest and the chairs, with the shining edges of their
elaborate carvings. The bedstead alone--this great square, royal
couch--seemed new to her, as if she saw it for the first time, with
its high columns supporting its canopy of old-fashioned, rose-tinted
cretonne, now bathed with such a sheet of deep moonlight that she half
thought she was on a cloud in the midst of the heavens, borne along by
a flight of silent, invisible wings. For a moment she felt the full
swinging of it; it did not seem at all strange or unnatural to her. But
her sight soon grew accustomed to the reality; her bed was again in its
usual corner, and she was in it, not moving her head, her eyes alone
turning from side to side, as she lay in the midst of this lake of
beaming rays, with the bouquet of violets upon her lips.
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