With Lily’s marriage and the end of the war, the house in Rue Raynouard
regained something of its old life and gaiety. For M. de Cyon, the match
was one surrounded by advantages. His wife was rich and beautiful. She
had superb taste. She spoke excellent French and yet she was an American
and thus provided a bond with the powerful nation whose favor was
invaluable to every nation of Europe. His friends were charmed by her,
for she had a way of listening to them, of drinking in their talk with a
breathless air. Therefore they declared her not only beautiful but
clever, a distinction which even Lily had never claimed. The world knew
only that she was an American widow, wealthy, distinguished, beautiful,
who had lived very quietly in Paris for more than twenty years. None
knew anything against her. Indeed the only person who knew her story was
dead, shot in the dungheaps of a French barnyard.
Yet there was, as people said, something about Lily de Cyon that aroused
curiosity, even a tenuous suspicion. Somehow she did not fit the story
of a quiet existence among the dowdy friends of Madame Gigon. She
appeared to have mysterious resources, of instinct, of knowledge, of
mystery. Enfin! She was a fascinating woman.
The strange gift of the crazy Madame Blaise appeared no longer to fill
her with horror; for The Girl in the Hat and The Byzantine Empress were
brought down from their hiding place in the dusty garret of Numero Dix
and hung on either side of the flaming Venice of Mr. Turner. They were
greatly admired by the painters whom Paul Schneidermann brought to the
house. Some attributed them to Ingres, but none was certain. It was
impossible to say who had painted them for they bore no signature. There
were some who believed that they were the only great pictures of an
obscure artist whose solitary rise from mediocrity came through the
inspiration of a woman, a marvelously beautiful woman with dark amber
hair and green white skin.
In the spring of 1920, the postman left with the concierge of Numero Dix
a thin letter bordered in black bearing the postmark of Lisieux. It
contained only a line or two, the mere mention of the death of Sister
Monica. She was buried within the walls of the convent which she had not
left in more than thirteen years.