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Perhaps the best description of the spirit one divines back of these stories, is found in the author's own description of one of the characters. She is walking here and there in a public park, taking small well-bred steps in prettily furred boots, and living through a moment of wild emotion (about to keep a rendezvous with a long-dead brother, if you'd like to know). The author says of her, that "in her heart a great mad wing-clipped bird was fluttering in the winter sunset." If you will meditate a moment on that description, you will have quite a clear notion of what you will find in the book--a great mad, wing-clipped bird, fluttering in a winter sunset. Let me add to that self-descriptive phrase, a bit of dialogue which also evokes the dominant mood of the book. It is in "The Deluge at Norderney," to my notion (although you will of course have your own favorite) one of the finest of the tales. The Cardinal says to the old maid of the noble family of Nat-og-Dag, (the world we step into through the covers of this book has many aristocrats in it, cardinals, ambassadors, Chanoinesses, exquisite and perverted young noblemen--and old ones too), "Madame," he says admiringly, "you have a great power of imagination and a fine courage."