it feels like this elegiac drift is less of an announcement of her beauty and presence, and more of an uncertain query as to whether she actually exists

Bellow is using detail not to persuade us of the existence of something but almost the opposite - to confirm its absence. Realism is elegiac, a branch of consciousness

The tone is elegiac, muffled, but also curiously intense

lacing it all together is his own elegiac longing for some solid ground he never really finds

At that moment he and she might have been the elders at the table, elegiac.

THE TONE OF THE VIXEN IS ELEGIAC, MYSTERIOUS, HISTORICAL

As with so many of his works, it is invariably elegiac in tone, overladen with a pervasive sense of sadness, fatalism and resignation, though the mood is soothed by Wong’s impeccable artistry and good taste.