While Kinbote has depicted Sybil as a controlling monster of a woman, it’s clear from this passage that John and Sybil are profoundly in love and that he sees her as a gentle, beautiful, and observant person. Here, Shade blends his love of nature with his love of his wife, intermingling his description of a waterfall with the moment he fell in love with her, and comparing her to a gorgeous Vanessa butterfly. Throughout the novel, butterflies are simultaneously associated with Shade’s family and with death—here, he refers to Sybil as a butterfly, and then immediately turns to wondering how many years they will have together before one of them dies. Every time Shade invokes a butterfly, he seems to be thinking of a family member’s death. It’s also clear from the fact that Sybil will often “greet” their daughter’s “ghost” that she, too, shares John’s sense that Hazel is still in their life, despite her death.