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All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and flower; yet we the same, the same forever!" Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and unintelligible, answered by: "Look, Frank, that's a colibri. You 've heard of colibris?"
For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, the humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of birds, the gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then, from far away, the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of the bell-bird, came softly to the ear.
The curé at home always says, 'Now, Jacques Colibris there's a man who is a model husband and father." He drank a deep draught of cider. "They arrive to-morrow," interpolated Madame Chalumeau hastily, with a hunted expression, "Victor and Félicité and Théodore. Also Théo's fiancée, an English girl. I have a letter from Victor I will read it to you."
They were desperately poor, for her father left most of his money to his other daughter, who married Jacques Colibris. You must see my Uncle Jacques, he is quite delightful and father was a gambler and so on. I can myself remember one morning when he came in and told her he had lost two hundred pounds, and that was a fortune then." "She told me about those times," answered Brigit, slowly.
He must have been greatly disappointed. He has always been very fond of me, you will remember. Even as boys, we had much in common." Madame Chalumeau's eyes twinkled as she nodded. Colibris' harmless vanity always amused her. "Yes, yes, I know. He inquired very particularly for you. A great man, Victor." "Yes, yes.
At length the moon sank beneath the tree-tops on the western bank, and the light became so uncertain that the voyagers were seriously debating the advisability of seeking a suitable spot in which to tie up the boat, when a sudden chilliness in the wind warned them that the dawn was at hand, and a few minutes later the sky to the eastward paled, so that the tops of the trees stood out against the pallor black as though drawn in Indian ink, the stars dimmed and blinked out, one after another, the eastern pallor became suffused with delicate primrose that rapidly warmed into clear amber, a beam of golden light flashed through the branches of the trees on the eastern bank of the river, and in a moment the whole scene changed as if by magic, a thousand lovely tints of green, blue, orange, crimson, and white, leapt into view as daylight flooded the landscape, revealing great masses of flowering shrubs and enormous festoons of queer-shaped and gorgeously coloured orchids; colibris that flashed like living gems darted hither and thither; flocks of gaily plumaged parrots winged their way, screaming discordantly, across the stream; brilliantly painted kingfishers darted like streams of living fire from bough to bough, or perched staring intently down into the water from some overhanging branch; enormous butterflies of exquisite colours, and dragon-flies with transparent rose-tinted wings flitted inconsequently over the surface of the water and were leaped at by fish as brilliantly tinted as themselves and it was day in the South American forest.
I remember once when we were boys a man came who felt the skull and read the character. He said to Victor, 'You have great talent, my little one, and to me he said, 'You are going to be a very great man, Colibris. But I did not care to develop my talents. I was always very modest and domestic.
Otherwise the shopkeeper's solitude remained undisturbed until towards noon, when the door opened and a short, brown-faced man, carrying a long whip, came in with a good deal of noise, and waked her as she dozed over her knitting. "Bonjour, Thildette! Frightened you, did I?" "Oh, Colibris, it is you! And what brings you? You will breakfast with me? But I am glad to see you, dear brother?
"He is a charming personality, isn't he, Colibris?" asked Madame Chalumeau, folding the letter and beaming with satisfaction. "I am curious to see this lady. The daughter of a Count, fichtre! And very beautiful. That must please Victor; he has an eye for beauty." "Yes, yes," returned Jacques Colibris absently, filling his glass with cider, "it is an excellent thing.
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