initial commit of ebook 36593HEADmain

1 files changed, 11473 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/36593.txt b/36593.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee27dae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36593.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11473 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fordham's Feud
+
+Author: Bertram Mitford
+
+Release Date: July 3, 2011 [EBook #36593]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORDHAM'S FEUD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Fordham's Feud
+By Bertram Mitford
+Published by Ward, Lock and Co Ltd, London.
+This edition dated 1897.
+Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+FORDHAM'S FEUD, BY BERTRAM MITFORD.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+AT FIRST SIGHT.
+
+The steamer _Mont Blanc_ was sweeping round the rather dangerous
+promontory just beyond La Tour de Peilz.
+
+The fine vessel was a brave sight as she sped arrowlike over the
+turquoise breast of Lake Leman, her straight stem shearing up a great
+scintillating blade of water on either side, her powerful paddles
+lashing up a long line of creaming rollers, hissing and curving away in
+her wake.  From stem to stern she was gay with bunting, for this was but
+her second trip after being laid up through the winter season, and there
+was a spick-and-span newness about everything, from the whiteness of her
+commodious hurricane deck to the dazzling glass and luxurious lounges of
+her airy and spacious saloon.
+
+The day was perfect.  Not a cloud was in the arching heavens, not a
+ripple on the blue surface of the lake, which mirrored forth the hoary
+crowns of the Savoy Alps as though they were cut in steel.  The great
+forest-clad slopes were rich in their velvety verdure, rising from the
+water's edge on the Savoy side; and a dazzling snow shroud still covered
+the Dent du Midi half-way down to its base.  On the Swiss shore the
+straggling towns and multitudinous villas lying among the fresh greenery
+of vineyards looked mere pigmy toys beneath the slopes of the great
+mountains.  And from the same bosky slopes came ever and anon the glad,
+joyous shout of the cuckoo.  It was June--but only just June--and the
+air, balmy and life-giving, knew no suspicion of sultriness.
+
+"I say, Phil, my boy, it's about time to collect our traps.  We go off
+at the next stage but one--Hallo!  What has become of the fellow?" broke
+off the speaker, turning to discover that his friend had left his side.
+"Ah! there he is.  At it again too.  By George, the dog's
+irreclaimable!"
+
+The said "dog" had withdrawn some yards from the speaker, and was
+standing with his back against the bulwarks apparently lost in
+contemplation of the scenery of the Savoy side.  But he had chosen a
+very odd place for his study of Nature, for between the latter and
+himself, in the direction of his gaze, were multifold heads--and hats,
+and between these heads--and hats--and the canvas awning was a space of
+barely half a yard.  Yet he seemed to gaze with rapt attention at
+something--or somebody.  "I say, Phil, who is _she_, this time?"  The
+suddenness of the question, the dry chuckle, the faintly sneering
+intonation, produced much the same effect on the gazer as the lash upon
+the half-broken thoroughbred.  He started.
+
+"Confound it, Fordham, you needn't make a fellow jump so," he retorted
+petulantly, with a slight flush.  "Can't a fellow look around him, I
+should like to know?"
+
+"Oh, certainly he can.  This is a free country--in fact `Liberte et
+Patrie' is the Cantonal motto.  You may even see it displayed at this
+moment--in triplicate too--among the bunting adorning this gallant
+craft.  Ah--I see the point of attraction now--and this time, 'pon my
+life, Phil, I think there's some excuse--for _you_," he added, sticking
+his glass into his eye and sending a critical look into an apparently
+unconscious group opposite.
+
+Philip Orlebar laughed, his good-humour quite restored.  Indeed, it was
+never for long that he and that enviable attribute parted company.
+
+Although the regular tourist season had not yet set in, the steamer's
+decks still contained a sprinkling of all those nationalities which you
+would be sure to find represented there at that time of the day and of
+the year.  Keen-faced Americans "doing" Europe with infinite zest and a
+Gladstone bag apiece; stolid Germans in long black coats--a duplicate of
+the latter invariably slung through the strap of their double
+field-glasses; a stray Muscovite noble, of refined manner and slightly
+_blase_ aspect; a group of English youths equipped with knapsack and
+alpenstock, bound for some mountain expedition with their Swiss tutor;
+and last but not least--in their own estimation at any rate--great in
+the importance of their somewhat aggressive sense of nationality, a
+muster of Britons numerically equalling all the other races and kindreds
+put together.  There was the inevitable clergyman with his inevitable
+wife--the latter austere of visage, as became a good Evangelical in a
+land where the shops were kept open on the Sabbath.  There was the
+British matron clucking around with her _posse_ of daughters--which
+guileless damsels were being convoyed about the Continent to a like end
+as that which caused their mammas and grandmammas to be shipped off on
+the voyage round the Cape in the days of good old John Company.  There
+were the regulation old maids, of the blue-stocking persuasion, Byron in
+hand, gazing yearningly upon the distant but gradually nearing walls of
+classic Chillon.  And here and there, elderly but erect, natty of
+attire, and countenance darkly sunburnt beneath the turbanlike puggaree
+enshrouding his summit, stalked unmistakably the half-pay Anglo-Indian.
+
+Upon one face in the group Fordham's eyeglass, following his companion's
+gaze, critically if somewhat contemptuously, came to a standstill.  It
+was in profile at that moment, but whether in profile or full it was a
+face bound to attract attention.  The regular features and short upper
+lip fully satisfied every requirement exacted by the canons of beauty.
+The eyes, large and earnest, now blue, now grey, according to the light
+under which they shone, rather imparted the idea that their possessor
+was inclined to take life seriously, and there was character in the
+strongly marked arching brows.  A sheen of dark-brown hair rippled back
+in waves beneath a broad-brimmed sailor hat to roll into a heavy knot
+over the back of the neck.
+
+"Well, you cynical old humbug," said Orlebar, emphasising his words with
+an almost imperceptible nudge of the elbow.  "Isn't _that_ about good
+enough to meet with even your approval?"
+
+"H'm!  No doubt.  But what I wanted to impress upon you was that in less
+than ten minutes we shall have to quit this ship.  So that if you've any
+loose gear among your traps--and I believe you have--now is the time to
+make it fast."
+
+The bell hanging in the steamer's bows now began to peal, to the
+accompaniment of the slackening beat of her paddles as, slowing down to
+half-speed, she glided majestically up to the Clarens landing-stage.
+Philip Orlebar, turning a deaf ear to his companion's warning, had left
+that mentor's side, and was strolling with finely assumed carelessness
+towards the gangway--for the object of his attention, and already more
+than incipient adoration, had risen and was moving in the same
+direction.  If she was about to land there, as seemed probable, might he
+not, by standing nigh at hand, obtain some chance clue as to her
+identity and destination?
+
+But they met face to face in the little crowd--met with a suddenness
+which brought a slightly disconcerted look to his somewhat speaking
+countenance.  Her large eyes encountered his, however, fearlessly and
+with an air of surprised inquiry, for in his eagerness she might be
+excused for thinking him on the point of addressing her.
+
+There were few passengers to be landed at Clarens, and she was not one
+of them; fewer still to embark, and in barely a couple of minutes the
+_Mont Blanc_ was speeding on her way again.
+
+"Heavens alive, man?" said Fordham, veiling the faint sneer with which
+he had been watching the movements of his impressionable friend.  "If
+you don't collect your traps the chances are all in favour of half of
+them being left on board.  We shall be at Montreux in three minutes."
+
+Again the bell gave forth its warning note, again the beat of the
+paddles slackened, as the _Mont Blanc_--sweeping so close in shore that
+any one of the groups lounging about in the gardens of the villa-like
+_pensions_, sloping down to the water's edge, could have chucked a
+walnut on to her decks as she sped by--rapidly neared the poplar-fringed
+landing-stage.  Then a great splashing of paddle-wheels as the engines
+were reversed, a throwing of warps and a mighty bustling, and the vessel
+was stationary.
+
+"Confound that fellow!" grumbled Fordham, as his friend did not appear.
+"Directly his eye lights upon a fresh `skirt' his wits are off
+woolgathering on the spot."
+
+"_Embarquement_!" sung out the bronzed skipper from the bridge.
+"_Allons, allons, messieurs et mesdames!  Depechez vous, s'il vous
+plait.  Nous sommes deja en retard_!" he added, testily.
+
+The last embarking passenger was on board, and while the gangway plank
+was in the act of withdrawal the defaulter emerged from below, laden
+with loose luggage.  He was not slow about his movements then.  A couple
+of leaps and he stood panting and flurried on the pier beside his
+companion, who had taken the precaution of landing everything that he
+could lay hands on.
+
+"I s-say, old man," stuttered Philip Orlebar, relinquishing to the care
+of mother earth--or rather the pavement of the landing-stage--the
+impedimenta which he had rescued at the cost of such flurry and risk.
+"W-w-what became of her?  Did she come ashore?"
+
+"What became of _her_?  Why by this time _she's_ half-way to Territet,
+laughing fit to die over the ridiculous figure you cut; in short, the
+wholly astonishing attitudes you struck, hurtling through the air with a
+Gladstone under each arm and half a score of telescopes and bundles and
+flying straps dancing about you like a kettle of beans tied to a dog's
+tail."
+
+"Did I look such a fool as that?  Hang it, I suppose I must have looked
+a bit grotesque though, eh, Fordham?"
+
+"Infernally so," was the consoling reply.  "In fact, I noticed _her_
+looking over the side, taking particular stock of you in your admirably
+acted _role_ of escaped lunatic.  _Ah, bonjour, Francois!  Ca va bien,
+hein_!" broke off the speaker in response to the smiling
+_commissionaire_ who stepped forward at that moment to take charge of
+their luggage.
+
+"_Tenez, Francois_," went on Fordham, at the conclusion of the string of
+hearty inquiries with which the man had greeted him, for they were old
+acquaintances.  "_Vous allez nous emballer ces colis la sur la poste
+des Avants.  Faut qu'ils nous rejoignent demain.  Sans faute, mon brave,
+n'est ce pas_?"
+
+"_Mais oui, Monsieur Fordhamme.  Restez seulment tranquille.  Vous
+pouvez y compter.  Ah, vous allez monter par le Chauderon?  Et bien--
+belle promenade, messieurs, et je vous remercie bien.  Au revoir,
+messieurs_!"
+
+"That seems a good sort of chap," began Philip Orlebar, dubiously, as
+they turned away.  "But, hang it all, is it safe--don't cher know?"
+
+"What?  The luggage?  Rather.  You may trust Francois to see a matter of
+this kind through.  He is a good chap--most of these fellows are.  They
+have a name among the British for being keen on _pourboires_--in a word,
+grasping.  But show me the true-born Briton of the same class who in a
+race for gratuities couldn't give them long odds, and beat them at that.
+It's not to be done, I tell you.  And now, Phil, we've plenty of time.
+First a cool _lager_ at yonder _cafe_, then for our stroll up the
+Chauderon.  And that said stroll on an afternoon like this is enough to
+make a man feel the pleasure of living, if anything is."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+TWO UNLIKES.
+
+In his eulogy of the beauties of that fairy glen, the Gorge du
+Chauderon, Fordham was not exaggerating one whit; and while our two
+friends are pursuing their way along its winding path, under the cool
+shelter of a wealth of luxuriant greenery meeting overhead, and the roar
+and rush of the mountain stream leaping through a succession of black,
+rock-girt caldrons in their ears, we will take the opportunity of
+improving their acquaintance.
+
+Philip Orlebar was a tall, fair, well-built young fellow of six and
+twenty, who had devoted the four years which had elapsed since he left
+college to sowing his wild oats; though, in justice to him, we must say
+that his crop was of the most moderate dimensions, in spite of his
+opportunities, for a sunny lightheadedness of manner, combined with a
+more than ordinarily prepossessing exterior, rendered him popular with
+everybody.  This especially held good as regarded the other sex, and was
+bad both for it and for himself; in fact, his susceptibility in that
+line was a source of chronic misgiving to his friends, who never knew
+into what sort of entanglement it might plunge him.
+
+He was the only son of a baronet, who doted on him.  But his
+expectations were not great, for Sir Francis Orlebar, who had been a
+widower since a year or two after Philip's birth, had recently endowed
+himself with a second wife, and taking this with the fact that his
+income did not exceed by a shilling 2,000 pounds per annum, it follows
+that a superfluity of spare cash was never a distinguishing feature in
+the Orlebar household.
+
+But if Sir Francis doted on his son, his new spouse did not.  She
+grudged the allowance of five hundred a year which that fortunate youth
+enjoyed.  She would have grudged it just as much if it had been fifty.
+Two thousand a year to keep up the title and the house upon was a mere
+pittance, declared Lady Orlebar the Second--who, by the way, had never
+possessed a shilling of her own--and a quarter of that was to be thrown
+away upon an idle young man, who squandered it all on his own selfish
+pleasures.  But on this point Sir Francis was firm.  He refused to
+reduce his son's allowance by one single penny.
+
+So Philip came and went as he chose, and took life easily.  He had no
+expensive tastes, and with a sufficiency of cash, good looks, excellent
+spirits, and an unlimited capacity for enjoyment, little is it to be
+wondered at if he found the process of "seeing the world" a very
+pleasant experience indeed.  And he did so find it.
+
+Richard Fordham was the exact antipodes to his friend both in appearance
+and disposition, which may have accounted for the excellent relations
+existing between the two.  Externally he was of medium height and
+well-proportioned.  His dark, almost swarthy countenance was handsome
+too, for his features were good and regular.  But there was something
+sinister in his expression, something ruthless in the glitter of his
+keen black eyes as he emitted one of his pungent sarcasms; and he was a
+man to whom sarcasm was as the very breath of life.  One peculiarity
+about him was that, though possessed of an abnormal sense of humour, he
+never laughed.  At most he would break into a short dry guffaw which had
+more of a sneer in it than of mirth; and although he could send a
+roomful of people into roars whenever he chose, not a muscle of his own
+saturnine countenance would relax.
+
+He was a good many years older than his travelling companion--how many
+it would have puzzled most people to determine, for he was one of those
+men whose ages are hard to guess.  And what constituted the bond of
+union between them was also a poser, unless their utter dissimilarity.
+Anyhow, light-hearted Phil was wont enthusiastically to declare that
+"Old Fordham was the best fellow in the world.  Only wanted knowing a
+bit.  Why, there never was a fellow easier to get on with, by Jove--once
+you knew him."
+
+It is only fair to say that in his own experience the encomium was
+wholly deserved.  They had been travelling companions for some time now,
+and yet had never had a difference, which is something to be able to
+say.  The dry, caustic sparkle of the older man's conversation had a
+great charm for the younger.  "He could take any amount of chaff from
+Fordham," the latter was wont to declare; "for he was a chap whose head
+was screwed on the right way, and, moreover, thoroughly knew his way
+about," a qualification sure to inspire respect in the young.
+
+We have said that Philip Orlebar was more than popular with the other
+sex, and here again the dissimilarity between the friends held good.
+Women detested Fordham uniformly and instinctively.  There is something
+in the theory of reciprocity; Fordham, for his part, cordially and
+unaffectedly detested women.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"By Jove!" cried Philip, when they had covered rather more than half
+their distance--"By Jove! but this place is well named--`Kettle,' isn't
+it, eh, Fordham?"
+
+"_No_, `Caldron,' to be accurate."
+
+"Well, it's pretty steamy just here.  Let's call a halt under that big
+rock and poke a smipe.  What d'you say?"
+
+"Just as you like," was the tranquil reply.  They had reached that part
+of the gorge where two great perpendicular cliffs, their black surface
+thickly grown with ferns and trailers, form a huge natural portal,
+narrowing the way to the road itself and the brawling, leaping mountain
+torrent which skirts it.  A delightfully cool resting-place--almost too
+cool--for the whirl of the spray reached them even there.  Soon the blue
+curl from a brace of pipes mingled fragrantly with the scent of pine
+resin and damp fern.
+
+Hardly were they seated than a sound of approaching voices was heard,
+and two girls appeared in sight round the bend in the path.  One carried
+a basket filled with wild flowers, eke a large handful of the same; the
+other a bag of sketching materials.  Both shot a rapid glance at the two
+smokers as they walked swiftly by.
+
+"Rather good-looking, eh?" said Phil, as soon as they were out of sight.
+"English, of course?"
+
+"No mistake.  The whole lake-side from Lausanne eastwards simply grows
+Britishers.  I predict we shall soon be for annexing it."
+
+"They're bound in the same direction as ourselves," went on Philip.  "At
+least there's no other place than Les Avants up this way, is there?"
+
+The other's mouth drew down at the corners in a faint sneer.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Phil.  They're bound there all right--in fact they're
+quartered there.  They've just been down into the gorge; one to pick a
+lot of daisies and buttercups, over which she and a pet parson will
+enjoy a not altogether scientific _tete-a-tete_ this evening--the other
+to execute a hideous libel on the existing scenery."
+
+"Now how the deuce do you know all this, Fordham?"
+
+"Oh, I know all their little ways.  I know something more, viz, that in
+forty-eight hours' time _you_ will be the chosen and privileged bearer
+of the truss of hay and the daubing bag--I mean the wild flowers and the
+sketching gear."
+
+"Oh, you don't know everything, old chap," cried Philip, with a laugh.
+
+"Don't I?  By the bye, if you're not eager to catch a chill, we'd better
+start again.  I know this much: there will be a flutter of rejoicing in
+the dovecote when those two arrive, brimful of the intelligence that a
+couple of new men--one, rather, for I don't count--are ascending to Les
+Avants, for at this time of year our estimable sex is almost exclusively
+represented in these hotels by invalids, parsons, or half-pay veterans.
+With some of whom, by the way, I shall have to fraternise, unless I want
+to do my expeditions alone, for you will be in such demand as universal
+porter in the matter of shawls and wraps and lunch-baskets, up the
+Rochers de Naye or the Dent de Jaman, or any other point of altitude to
+which the ambition of the enterprising fair may aspire, that we had
+better take a formal and affecting farewell of each other as soon as we
+arrive at the door."
+
+"Shut up, you old fraud," was the jolly retort.  "At present all my
+aspirations are of the earth earthy, for they are of the cellar.  I hope
+they keep a good brew up there, for I feel like breeding a drought in
+the hotel the moment we arrive."
+
+"Well, the brew's first-rate, and now the sooner we get over this bit of
+heavy collar-work the sooner we shall reach it."
+
+"Right.  Excelsior's the word," assented Phil, with a glance at the
+steep and rugged path zigzagging above at a frightfully laborious angle.
+
+There may be more attractive spots than Les Avants as you arrive there
+within an hour or two of sunset in the early summer, but there cannot be
+many.  The golden rays of the sinking sun light up the frowning Rochers
+de Naye and the mighty precipice which constitutes the face of the Dent
+de Jaman with a fiery glow.  The quiet reposeful aspect of the hollow,
+which the aforesaid sunbeams have now abandoned, lying in its
+amphitheatre of bold sweeping slopes crowned with black pine forests, is
+soothing, tranquillising of effect; and the handsome, plentifully gabled
+hotel, rearing up among a sprinkling of modest chalets, is suggestive of
+comfort and abundance.  But what is this milk-white carpet spread in
+snowy sheen over the meadows, covering the green of the adjoining slopes
+to a considerable height?  Is it snow?  Not it.  That white and dazzling
+expanse consists of nothing less than a mass of the most magnificent
+narcissus blossoms, growing in serried profusion, distilling in heavy
+fumes a fragrance of paradise upon the balmy evening air.  Such was the
+aspect of Les Avants as our two friends arrived there on that evening in
+early June.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"By Jove, Fordham, but this is a sweet place!" cried Philip Orlebar,
+moved to real earnestness as they emerged from the wooded path suddenly
+upon the beautiful scene.  "A perfect Eden!"
+
+"Plenty of Eves, anyhow?" was the characteristic and laconic retort.
+
+But Philip had already noted a flutter of light dresses, though still
+some little distance off.  Tennis racket in hand, a number of girls in
+groups of twos and threes, here and there a male form interspersed, were
+wending along a gravel path leading from the tennis-court towards the
+hotel, for the first dinner-bell was just ringing.  The sight called up
+a sneer to Fordham's lip.
+
+"Look at that, Phil, and note the vagaries of the British idiot abroad.
+Fancy coming to the Swiss mountains to play lawn tennis."
+
+"Well, old man, and if they like it?"
+
+"Ah, yes, quite so; I forgot!" was the significant answer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+BREAKING THE ICE.
+
+"We sha'n't be intolerably crowded here, Phil," remarked Fordham, as
+they sat down to _table d'hote_.  "It's early in the season yet, you
+see."
+
+But although the long tables running round the fine dining-hall--the
+latter occupying the whole ground-floor of one wing--were only laid
+half-way down the room, yet there was a good concourse flowing in.
+Portly matrons with bevies of daughters, clergymen and clergywomen with
+or without daughters, spectacled old maids hunting in couples, an
+undergraduate or two abroad for the "Long," here and there a long-haired
+German, and a sprinkling of white-whiskered Anglo-Indians, by the time
+they had all taken their seats, constituted a gathering little short of
+threescore persons.  A pretty cheerful gathering, too, judging from the
+clatter of tongues; for the Briton abroad is a wholly expansive animal,
+and as great a contrast to his or her--especially her--starch and
+buckram personality at home as the precept of the average professor of
+faith and morals is to his practice.
+
+Our two friends found themselves at the transverse table at the lower
+end of the room, with their backs to the bulk of the diners.  But in
+front of them were the open windows, no small advantage in a room full
+of dining fellow-creatures.  The sunset glow fell redly on the purple
+heads of the Savoy Alps, and the thick, heavy perfume of narcissus came
+floating in, triumphing over the savoury odours of fleshpots.
+
+The room had just settled down steadily to work through the _menu_ when
+Phil's neighbour, a lady of uncertain age with spinster writ large,
+opened fire upon him in this wise:
+
+"How very thick the scent of the narcissus is this evening."
+
+"It is.  A sort of Rimmel's shop turned loose in the Alps."
+
+"But such a heavy perfume must be very unhealthy, must it not?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"But don't you think it must be?"
+
+"I really can't give an opinion.  You see, I don't know anything about
+the matter," replied Phil, good-humouredly, and in something like
+desperation as the blank truth dawned upon him that he was located next
+to a bore of the first water, and the worst kind of bore at that--the
+bore feminine.  His persecutor went on:
+
+"But they say that flowers too strongly scented are very unhealthy in a
+room, don't they?"
+
+"Do they?  I don't know.  But, after all, these are not in the room;
+they are outside."
+
+"But don't you think it comes to the same thing?"  Heavens!  What was to
+be the end of this?  Instinctively he stole a glance at Fordham, but
+that worthy's impassive countenance betrayed nothing, unless it were the
+faintest possible appreciation, in his grim, saturnine way, of the
+humour of the thing.  He mumbled something not very intelligible by way
+of reply, and applied himself with extra vigour to the prime duty of the
+gathering.  But he was not to escape so easily.
+
+The lady was intently scrutinising the _menu_.  Then to Phil:
+
+"Don't you think _ferras_ is an extremely bony fish?"
+
+This was too much even for Fordham.  The corners of his mouth dropped
+perceptibly, and a faintly audible chuckle escaped him.
+
+"I--I--'pon my life I don't know," stuttered poor Phil.  "The fact is I
+never knew the scheme of creation comprised such a fish."
+
+"Didn't you really?  How very odd.  But do you really mean it though?"
+
+"Oh, yes; it's a fact," he declared, wearily.
+
+"Ah! they are bringing it round now.  You will soon be able to give me
+your opinion."
+
+Phil was deciding that he would die rather than prosecute any
+investigations into the osseously reputed _ferras_, and was on the point
+of asserting that he loathed the whole finny race, when a diversion
+occurred.  Three chairs opposite had remained vacant, and into these
+three persons were now seating themselves.  Looking up suddenly, Phil
+found himself face to face with the girl who had so strongly attracted
+his attention on board the _Mont Blanc_.
+
+The old couple were her parents, of course, he decided straight out of
+hand.  Military and Indian, he went on, pursuing his verdict, and a
+fine-looking old man.  The elder lady seemed in frail health.  Of course
+they were the girl's parents--not a doubt about it.  But what a piece of
+luck!  She to be his _vis-a-vis_ at the table!  He quite forgot the
+existence of the exemplary bore at his elbow, now.
+
+The girl herself, as soon as she was seated, sent a searching glance all
+down the room, as if appraising the style of people who were to be their
+fellow-sojourners.  This he noted; also her perfect and graceful
+self-possession.  But for all the interest taken in the new arrivals by
+Fordham, they might just as well not have come in.
+
+Dinner was more than half through, and still he had found no opportunity
+of utilising the pleasant unconventionality afforded by the _table
+d'hote_ system.  If only they had been next to him; but being opposite
+tended to hinder matters.  He could not even volunteer the salt or the
+mustard, and under cover of that flimsy advance work up a conversation,
+for both those condiments--and everything needful--were as lavishly
+supplied on the other side of the table as on his own.  What the deuce
+was he to say?  For once in his life, easy-going Philip Orlebar felt his
+normal stock of assurance fail him.
+
+"Alma, child," the elder lady was saying in a low tone, but audible
+across the table, "hadn't you better change places with your uncle and
+come next to me?  I don't think he ought to sit with his back to the
+window."
+
+"Not her parents, by Jove!" thought Phil.  "`Alma.'  That's a name I
+never heard before."
+
+"'Tisn't that," grumbled the veteran, before his niece could reply.
+"There's no draught--none at all.  But what the deuce do they mean by
+sticking us up in this corner with our backs to the view?  I don't want
+to look at a lot of other animals feeding.  I want to get the benefit of
+the mountains opposite, and the sunsets and all that."
+
+"But, uncle," struck in the girl--and Phil noted that she had a sweet
+voice, beautifully modulated and clear--"we can look at the mountains
+opposite all day long, but this grand opportunity of studying a
+considerable collection of our fellow-creatures all off their guard is
+only vouchsafed at _table d'hote_ time.  And I was just congratulating
+myself on having the whole population in front of me."
+
+"Pooh-pooh, child!  When you get to my age you'll have had quite enough
+of studying your fellow-creatures--more than enough, I'll lay a guinea.
+And confound it, we come to this country to study Nature," added the old
+man, relapsing into his original growl.
+
+Now this conversation, though carried on in a low tone, was distinctly
+audible across the table--a fact of which the parties to it should have
+been aware but for that inconceivable fatuity peculiar to our
+fellow-countrymen when abroad, a conviction that everybody but
+themselves is either deaf or afflicted with an opacity of understanding
+which could hardly exist outside an asylum for imbeciles.  So they were
+not a little surprised and slightly perturbed when Fordham, looking up,
+said quietly:
+
+"If you will allow me, sir, I shall be happy to exchange seats.  It is
+perfectly immaterial to me which way I face."
+
+The trio looked astonished, but the relief on one countenance could
+hardly dissemble itself.
+
+"Er--you are very kind," stuttered the veteran.  "But--er--really--I
+hardly like--er--unfair advantage to take of your good-nature."
+
+"It is kind of you, indeed," struck in the old lady, somewhat hurriedly,
+as though she feared the offer would be allowed to drop.  "But the fact
+is the General never can bear to sit with his back to the light.  And,
+if it is really all the same to you--"
+
+"It is, I assure you.  I am delighted to be of service.  So I'll mention
+the matter to the head waiter, and you may consider it settled."
+
+The girl was placed between her uncle and aunt.  This change would
+result in Fordham being placed next to her.  "What the deuce is the
+fellow driving at now?" thought Philip, in mingled wrath and alarm.
+Then it dawned upon him that his friend was driving at nothing less than
+the securing of that coveted position for him, Philip.  "Good old
+Fordham!  What a brick he is!" he mentally resolved, with a glow at his
+heart.  "Best fellow that ever lived, by Jove?"
+
+But the ice thus broken, our two friends and the new arrivals were soon
+chatting away as if they had known each other for at least some time.
+
+"I noticed you on board the _Mont Blanc_ this afternoon," said Phil to
+the old General, with magnificent mendacity--the fact being that he was
+unaware of that veteran's very existence.  "But you didn't land at
+Montreux, did you?"
+
+"No.  We went on to Territet.  The ladies drove, with the luggage.  I
+took the funicular railway up to Glion and walked the rest."
+
+"Don't you think that Glion railway is very dangerous?" struck in
+Philip's neighbour, seeing her opportunity.
+
+"Oh, dear no.  Perfectly safe, they tell me," answered the old
+gentleman.  "I daresay, though, it's rather a trying affair for you
+ladies, finding yourselves let straight down the steep side of a
+mountain in a thing for all the world like a bucket in a well."
+
+"But don't you think it may one of these days come to grief?" pursued
+the Infliction.
+
+"But, my dear madam, just consider the number of times it has gone up
+and down in perfect safety."
+
+"Ah, but don't you think it may break down just that one time you may
+happen to be in it?"
+
+It was dreadful.  The octopus-like tenacity of this bore was enough to
+paralyse the most mercurial.  There fell a kind of languid despair upon
+the countenances of the group, and each looked helplessly at the other,
+as if to ascertain who was equal to the titanic task of warding off this
+terrible person.  But, meeting the large eyes of his _vis-a-vis_, Phil
+at any rate found comfort.  They would have something to laugh at
+between them, anyway.
+
+"Here!  I say--you!  What are you doing?" called out Fordham, as at that
+moment a waiter came bustling up and began to shut the window.
+
+"I shut de window, sir.  Dere is one German gentleman at de oder end of
+de room say dat de window must be shut."
+
+"Oh, indeed!  Well, then, give my compliments to the one German
+gentleman at the other end of the room and tell him the window won't be
+shut.  We'll see him in Halifax first."
+
+The waiter paused a moment, then skipped away to deliver the message.
+
+"Confound the fellow's cheek!" cried Philip, indignantly.  "Likely we
+are going to have our window bossed by some cadaverous brass-band player
+at the other end of the room."
+
+And one and all in the vicinity of the disputed window seconded, in
+varying terms, his protest.
+
+Just then the waiter reappeared.
+
+"Ver' sorry, sir; but de German gentleman say it must be shut."
+
+"Does he?" said Fordham.  "Well, look here.  Tell him--this time without
+my compliments--that there are a few people at this end of the room
+whose convenience is of as much importance as his own, and that they are
+equally resolved that this window shall stand open.  There--leave it
+alone.  If you do shut it we shall open it again at once."
+
+The waiter paused again very irresolute, shrugged his shoulders,
+smirked, shrugged his shoulders again, then skipped away.  Watching him,
+they had no difficulty in locating the offender--a lank-haired
+bespectacled Teuton occupying the remotest possible seat from the window
+in dispute.  He, in wrath, vehemently evoked the proprietor, who,
+however, at that moment was not on hand.
+
+"That Battle of the Windows is an oft-recurring phase of hotel life out
+here," remarked Fordham.  "No man is more absolutely unprejudiced
+against Continental nationalities than myself: yet it is a fact that
+whenever there is anything like a respectable sprinkling of Germans or
+Frenchmen in these hotels, they invariably insist upon having the room
+hermetically sealed all through dinner-time."
+
+"The deuce they do!" growled the old General.  "But do you mean to tell
+me, sir, that a few of these unbarbered music-masters are going to cram
+their confounded love of fustiness down our throats?"
+
+"Well, I've seen more than one lively episode over that window
+question," replied Fordham.  "And the fact of that one fellow trying it
+on just now is sufficient proof that the tradition exists--and exists
+pretty strongly too."
+
+"But don't you think they may perhaps, after all, be more susceptible to
+cold than we English?" struck in the Infliction.
+
+"Undoubtedly," assented Fordham, blandly, preparing to beat a retreat
+from the table under cover of his reply, for the dessert had already
+gone round, and the room was emptying fast.
+
+"By Jove, Fordham, but isn't it a deuced rum thing they should have
+turned up here?" said Phil, as the two made their way to the _promenoir_
+for a cigar.
+
+"_She_, I suppose you mean.  No, it isn't particularly rum.  I knew they
+were bound here all along."
+
+"What--on board the steamer?  No.  How did you know?"
+
+"Oh, while you were taking particular stock of the chick, I happened to
+overhear tags of the old birds' conversation," said Fordham, acidly, as
+if the subject bored him.
+
+"Well, and why didn't you tell a fellow?"
+
+"Why didn't I?  Hang it all, it's bad form to repeat what you hear by
+accident, you know.  Besides, it was rather sport to watch your face
+under the pleasant little surprise."
+
+"Oh, that be hanged for a yarn?" cried Philip, impatiently.  "But I say,
+who are they, I wonder?  What's their name?"
+
+"Don't know.  Easily found out though."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"Why, go and look at the arrival book in the _bureau_.  I'll wait for
+you here.  I'm not interested in the matter."
+
+Away went Philip without a word.  Turning the pages of the book, the
+last entry of all, freshly made, read:
+
+"_Major-General and Mrs Wyatt_."
+
+"_Miss Wyatt_."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+ALMA.
+
+Everybody visiting at Les Avants for the first time while the narcissus
+is in full bloom, is apt to grow more than enthusiastic over that lovely
+and fragrant flower, even as in higher localities everybody is bound to
+gush inordinately over that other blossom which is like unto a gun-wad
+picked into fluff, and is neither lovely nor fragrant--to wit, the
+_edelweiss_.  This being so, it is not surprising that Alma Wyatt should
+have seized the very first opportunity of escaping from the house with
+intent to cull as huge a bunch of the beautiful blossoms as she could
+possibly carry.
+
+It was a radiant morning.  The sky a deep and dazzling blue, such as is
+never to be seen over this uncertain and watery England of ours, was
+unflecked by a single cloud, and the air, mellow and balmy in the early
+forenoon, distilled a most exquisite perfume.  To Alma it seemed as if
+all the glories of Paradise lay spread around her as she wandered on
+through the white and shining fields, drinking in the floods of
+fragrance diffused by the breath of a million snowy petals.  Opposite,
+the great slopes were all aglow with green and gold, relieved by the
+sombre plumage of shaggy pines straggling up to the frowning scarp of
+the Dent de Jaman as though they aspired to scale that grim and
+forbidding wall, and had been forced to yield sullenly in the attempt.
+A mellow haze rested upon the soaring peaks beyond the fragment of blue
+lake just visible--blue as the sky above; and from his pent-up prison
+far down in the deep and wooded gorge the hoarse thunder of the mountain
+torrent was borne upward in subdued and unending cadence, to mingle with
+the hum of bees culling their sweet stores from the luscious cells of
+the narcissus blossoms.  Small wonder that to this girl with the large,
+earnest eyes and poetic temperament--small wonder that to this girl, but
+two days out from damp and cockneyfied Surbiton, the majesty of the
+great mountains, the hoary cliffs still flaked with snow towering on
+high, the black and stately pines, the vernal pastures and the far-away
+echo of melodious cow-bells, the blue lake and the golden splendour of
+this radiant Swiss summer, should be as something more than a glimpse of
+the glories of Paradise.
+
+She was glad that she had come out alone, glad that she had not met any
+of the other girls with whom she had made acquaintance the evening
+before.  It was delicious to be free to drink in all the wealth of this
+Elysium without feeling constrained to talk, to reply to commonplaces
+which should let in the outside world, vulgar by comparison, upon the
+illimitable charm of this fairy scene.  For this was her first
+experience of Switzerland--almost of the Continent--and it in nowise
+fell short of the ideal she had formed.
+
+Alma Wyatt had been left fatherless at an early age.  Better for her had
+she been orphaned altogether.  Her childhood had been wholly uncared
+for, and, as far as her mother was concerned, unloved.  For she had a
+younger sister upon whom that mother's love was concentrated to doting
+point.  All the bitterness of home life had fallen to Alma, all the
+sweets thereof to her sister.  Their mother, a selfish, domineering
+woman, whose redeeming qualities were infinitesimal even to vanishing
+point, simply made the elder girl's life wretched within that
+semi-detached villa at cockneyfied Surbiton, but for the younger the
+slender resources of a cramped income were strained to the uttermost.
+No wonder that the beautiful face was seldom free from a tinge of
+sadness; no wonder that her character had acquired a concentrativeness
+and reserve beyond her short twenty years of life.
+
+We said that it would have been better for her were she an orphan
+indeed, and in saying this we are not exaggerating.  Her uncle and aunt,
+under whose care we first make her acquaintance, looked upon her almost
+as their own child--would have been only too glad to have adopted her as
+such, for they were childless.  But her mother would not hear of this.
+Alma was necessary as, figuratively speaking, a whipping-post for
+Constance, the younger girl.  She could not part with her altogether--
+besides, she was useful in other ways.  But the General and his wife
+managed to have her with them as frequently as they could, and the
+widow, who could not afford to quarrel with her brother-in-law, dared
+not oppose his wishes in the matter beyond a certain point.  So here was
+Alma, with a prospect of two months to spend with her dearly-loved and
+indulgent uncle and aunt; two months of easy travel and varying sojourn
+among the fairest and most inspiring scenes that this world can show;
+two months of unconventional life as near to perfect freedom as the
+trammels of civilisation will allow; and above all, two months of
+emancipation from home worries and suburban semi-detached pettinesses,
+and the galling fetter of a show of "duty" towards those whom she could
+neither love nor honour.
+
+Standing there among the narcissus, gazing around upon the radiant
+scenes spread in lustrous splendour about her, she made a wondrously
+beautiful picture.  Her eyes shone with a light of gladness, and the
+normally calm regularity of the patrician features had given way to a
+slight flush of eagerness which was infinitely winsome.  But as her
+glance suddenly met that of another the glad light vanished as by magic,
+yielding place to a look of vexation, coldness, reserve.  She had been
+surprised in the midst of a rhapsody--taken off her guard.
+
+But as though he read her thoughts, Philip Orlebar was not the man to
+add to her discomfiture.  He was thoroughbred, _aux bouts des ongles_,
+and with all his lightheadedness and devil-may-care jollity, was endowed
+with tact beyond the endowment of most Englishmen--_young_ Englishmen at
+any rate.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Wyatt," he said, snatching the pipe from between his
+teeth.  "Out among the narcissus already, I see.  Just what I've been
+doing myself--though, as a rule, flower gathering isn't much in my line.
+I only pick up an extra fine blossom now and again as I stroll along,
+which may account for the meagreness of my bunch," exhibiting a small
+handful containing some dozen of stalks.  "But you--you have got a grand
+bouquet."
+
+The unaffectedness of his address, the breezy lightheadedness of his
+tone, was not without its influence even upon her.  The gravity of her
+reserve melted into a smile.
+
+"They are so lovely," she answered; "I couldn't remain indoors a moment
+longer."
+
+"Just the state of the case with me.  Surprising how great minds always
+jump together.  But to be serious, I believe the blossoms up above there
+are larger than these.  Some one or other in the hotel told me I ought
+to go and look at them, and I did," added mendacious Phil.  "That lazy
+dog, Fordham, wouldn't move--planted himself at the end of a pipe in a
+cane chair in one of those arbours.  I couldn't stand that, so I started
+a stroll in a small way.  Let me carry those for you."  And in a
+twinkling he had possessed himself of the two huge bunches of narcissus
+which she had gathered.
+
+"Thanks.  It's a shame to burden you, though.  Isn't this a beautiful
+place?"
+
+"Rather.  Old Fordham is enthusiastic about it, and I don't much wonder.
+He knows it well, you see.  I never was here before in my life, but now
+I am here I'm in no hurry to move on.  There are some grand walks and
+first-rate climbs to be had.  You were saying last night you were
+looking forward to that sort of thing.  I hope we shall be able to show
+you the way about a little.  We must make up a party for a climb
+somewhere before this splendid weather changes.  Fordham is worth any
+round dozen of guides."
+
+"But--we can hardly lay your friend's good-nature under such a heavy
+contribution," she said, with a queer little smile.
+
+"Oh, can't we!  Old Fordham is the best fellow in the world--only wants
+knowing a bit.  He'll do anything he's asked."
+
+That queer smile broadened round Alma's lips.  She had sat opposite the
+now eulogised Fordham during the whole of dinner-time; and, be it
+remembered, she was given to studying character.  But she said nothing,
+and by this time they had regained the hotel.
+
+A cool fountain was playing in the terraced garden in front of the
+_promenoir_, shooting high in the air and falling back into its basin in
+a shower of scattering diamond drops.  Beside this, leaning on an
+alpenstock, a big meerschaum in his mouth, stood General Wyatt.
+
+"Well, Alma.  Been ravaging the narcissus fields?" he said, as they came
+up.  "But what on earth will you do with all that lot?  A trifle too
+strong, won't it be, for any ordinary-sized room?"
+
+"I don't think so, uncle.  Why, in England people would give anything
+for such magnificent blossoms as these, and here we are already
+beginning to think them nothing very great.  But I'll go and put them in
+water for the present."
+
+"Well, don't be long, dear, or we sha'n't get our walk," he called after
+her.
+
+"Grand day, General?" said Philip, re-lighting his pipe.
+
+"It is, indeed.  By the bye, since I've heard your name, are you in any
+way related to Francis Orlebar--Sir Francis he is now?"
+
+"Rather closely.  He happens to be my father.  Did you know him well?"
+
+"You don't say so!  Well, well!  It's a small world, after all.  Know
+him well?  I should think I did.  I was some years his senior though,
+and he wasn't long in the service.  But that must have been before you
+were born."
+
+"And have you never met since, General?"
+
+"Only once--just about the time he got into that--er--ah."  And the old
+man, remembering who he was talking to, suddenly pulled himself up and
+launched forth into a tremendous sneeze.  The slip was not lost upon
+Phil, but he came to the rescue promptly.
+
+"Think we are like each other, General?" he said.
+
+"N-no!  Don't know though.  There is a likeness.  You're the finer built
+fellow of the two--taller and broader.  Bless my soul, though, but the
+world is a small one.  To think of Frank Orlebar's son turning up in
+this way?"
+
+"I hope I'm not interrupting, General Wyatt," said a feminine and
+tentative voice.  "Your niece was saying last night she was a perfect
+stranger here, and we thought she might like to go with us.  We are
+going to the Cubly.  It isn't far, and we shall be back to lunch.  We
+hope you will come too."
+
+The speaker was one of the two girls who had passed our friends in the
+Gorge du Chauderon.  Phil had already made a little conversation with
+her the evening before.  So now she turned and extended the invitation
+to him.  He gladly accepted, while the General answered for Alma and
+himself that nothing would give them greater pleasure.  And at that
+moment Alma reappeared and they started.  The Miss Ottleys were pleasant
+well-bred girls of artistic tastes and plenty of conversation, and the
+walk promised to be a success.
+
+We shall not, however, follow the party to the pine-crowned height
+sheering up from the vine-clad slopes immediately behind Montreux, nor
+share in the magnificent panorama which it affords.  Sufficient to say
+that at the end of three hours they returned, in the highest spirits and
+on the best of terms with themselves and each other.  In such free and
+easy fashion are acquaintanceships formed and often consolidated into
+friendships, amid the pleasant unconventionally of life in mountain
+hotels.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+FORDHAM PHILOSOPHISES.
+
+"I say, Fordham.  We're getting up an expedition for to-morrow, and
+you've got to come," cried Phil, bursting into his friend's room just
+before dinner one evening.
+
+"Have I?" replied the latter leisurely, turning round with a half-soaped
+visage, and razor arrested in mid-air.  "But, Phil, it's rather lucky
+you didn't swoop down in such hurricane method upon a more nervous man
+than yours truly, or it's wildly hunting for sticking plaster he'd be at
+this moment.  And now, for my enlightenment, who's _we_?"
+
+"Oh, the Ottleys and the Wyatts and one or two more.  We want to start
+early, cross the lake by steamer and get as far up that valley on the
+other side as we can."
+
+"To Novel?  Yes, and then?"
+
+"Why then we are going to charter a boat and row back in the cool of the
+evening."
+
+"Not a bad scheme.  Who do you say are going, beside the inseparables?"
+
+"One of the Miss Milnes--the pretty one--and that fellow Scott."
+
+"Scott, the devil-dodger?"
+
+"Yes.  The Ottleys have asked him.  I can't think why, for he's a rank
+`outsider.'"
+
+"Most of the `shepherds' appointed to administer `Dearly beloved
+brethren' to their countrywomen in this otherwise favoured land are, my
+dear chap.  But it's all the better for you.  He can take the two Ottley
+nymphs off your hands while you offer _latria_ to the fair Inkermann--no
+Alma--I beg your pardon."
+
+"But--but hang it, that's just what the beggar won't do," blurted Phil
+in desperation.  "Fact is he's always in the way, and really it's
+contemptible, you know; but what's to be done with a cad like that, who
+ignores a snub that another fellow would knock you down for--or try to?
+You'll come along, old man, won't you?"
+
+"Let's see.  There's the General, he's too old and don't count.  Then
+there's yourself and the parson; and they want a third donkey--I mean
+beast of burden.  Two won't be enough to sling all the panniers they'll
+want along.  I'm afraid, Phil, you mustn't count upon me, unless you can
+manage to supply the missing steed first."
+
+"Bosh, Fordham!  You won't be wanted to carry anything."
+
+"Not, eh?  Let's see again.  Four females--that means eight wraps,
+putting it at the lowest computation.  Add to that the delicate
+creatures' rations--for you can't get anything eatable or drinkable at
+Novel--and sunshades, which they _must_ have for crossing the lake,
+don't you know, and which they'll discard directly they begin to walk.
+And there's all the amateur-commissionaire business into the bargain.
+No, no, Phil.  Having given the matter my most careful consideration, I
+regret to say that I am unable to undertake it--as the publisher said
+when he `chucked' the budding author's MS."
+
+"You old savage!  If you weren't shaving I'd `chuck' all the boots and
+bolsters in the room at your head."
+
+"Well, I've done now, so you can begin.  But, I say, Phil," he went on,
+tranquilly, "how long have we been here?"
+
+Philip Orlebar's handsome head was well through the open window at that
+moment.  His friend therefore found it necessary to repeat the question.
+
+"Eh--what?  How long?  Oh, about ten days, haven't we?"
+
+"I believe we have," rejoined the other in the same silky tone.  "And,
+my dear boy, doesn't it strike you that you are getting on ra-ather
+rapidly?"
+
+"No.  Why?"
+
+"Nothing.  Only that even the charm of my improving conversation does
+not avail to keep your head within that window, when some inexplicable
+instinct--for you couldn't possibly have _seen_ her--warns you that your
+divinity is on the terrace below.  And yet, in a few minutes more you
+will be seated by her side for at least an hour--such being
+unfortunately the length of _table d'hote_, and after that may safely be
+counted upon to pass the residue of the evening not a hundred yards
+apart from her by any means."
+
+"Well, I'm only one of a crowd then," retorted Philip, with a dash of
+irritation.  "Those confounded Ottley girls are always on hand--a good
+deal too much so."
+
+"Are they?  Look here now, Phil.  What is there about that girl that
+makes a difference between her and any other girl?"
+
+"Ah!  You--even you, you old ruffian, own that there is a difference?"
+
+"Not so fast, my dear chap.  I asked _you_ the question.  But if you
+want me to answer it myself, I reply `Nothing.'"
+
+"What?  You don't see any difference?"
+
+"Not a particle," responded his tormentor, blandly.  Philip stared for a
+moment.  He hardly knew what to say.  Then:
+
+"Well, with all your shelliness, you crustaceous old cuss, I gave you
+credit for more discrimination.  Why, confound it all, look at her
+alongside the rest of the crowd here.  Isn't she a head and shoulders
+above them all--in every particular?"
+
+"H'm, h'm!  Oh, yes! no doubt.  But that isn't saying very much.  She
+looks thoroughbred, I admit, and talks well, and has some ideas--not bad
+ones, either; not that I've ever been favoured with them myself, for
+I've never laid myself out for that honour.  Women, you see, are like
+children.  As long as you keep them at arm's length they respect you.
+Directly you have ever so little to do with them, then good-bye to your
+peace, for they will allow you none; then, presto, the collar is round
+your neck and you find yourself cast for the _role_ of general poodle
+before you know where you are.  It's fetch-and-carry, will-you-do-this
+and would-you-mind-doing-that.  And then you are expected to act the
+sympathetic listener to all their infernal egotistic fads; and God help
+you if at any moment you forget the sympathetic part of it.  But to
+return to our sheep.  You think this particular girl an angel, because
+she's good-looking and thoroughbred, and has a hovering sort of
+suggestion about her of being an ill-used mortal and welcoming a
+sympathetic spirit, and all that sort of thing.  Then, again, you run
+against her up here, where you're both of you showing at your best
+because you've neither of you anything in the world to put you out--
+splendid weather, lovely country, good old times all round--sort of
+paradise in which she stands out as the Eve to you, and I daresay you as
+the Adam to her.  That's not life, my dear fellow; that's not life.  A
+mere summer idyll and no more.  Can't possibly last, you know."
+
+"And why the deuce can't it last?" said Phil, who had been listening
+somewhat impatiently to this harangue.
+
+Fordham emitted a short, dry guffaw.
+
+"Well now, can it?  I put it to you.  Just run over all the `happy
+couples' within the circle of your acquaintance: to how many of them is
+life a summer idyll, or any sort of idyll at all?  You needn't go
+further than this house, which at present contains a good few
+`yoke-fellows,' to use a thoroughly expressive term.  If you haven't yet
+found time to observe them, just keep your eyes open for the next day or
+two--if you can divert those killing orbs from the adorable Alma, that
+is--and a place like this is good for observations of the kind, because
+the subjects of them are always more or less off their guard.  Putting
+it at the lowest computation, eight marriages out of every ten are
+abject failures--the other two very dubious."
+
+"Oh, indeed!  And how many are there that turn out satisfactorily?" said
+Phil, ironically.
+
+"Perhaps one in five thousand."
+
+"Oh--well--it's something to have got you to admit that much.  Now why
+shouldn't I, for instance, hit off that one?"
+
+"Why shouldn't you?  Well now, Phil, I put it to you as one not wholly
+unacquainted with sporting matters.  What would you say to a fellow who
+should ask you to take tickets in a lottery where the chances were five
+thousand to one against you--or rather to take one ticket, and that at
+the price of all you were worth?  You'd vote him drunk, of course.  Yet
+if I know anything of my fellow-creatures, you are in a fair way towards
+perpetrating that identical suicidal imbecility.  Now, what do you say?
+Chuck your expedition across the lake to-morrow, and let's go on to
+Zermatt now instead of a week or so later.  That, or your fate is
+sealed."
+
+"No you don't, old chap; no you don't," said Phil, who, far from being
+offended by the other's ill-conditionedness, was hugely pleased thereat,
+since it confirmed and encouraged certain hopes he had already more than
+half shaped.  "By Jove, I never had such a good time in my life as I've
+been having here.  Too soon to cut it just yet."
+
+Fordham's shoulders went up in an expressive shrug as he turned away to
+the door.
+
+"Don't say you weren't shown the cliff you proposed to jump over," he
+said.  "Jump now, and be--blessed to you."
+
+"By the way, Fordham," said Phil, "isn't it a deuced rum thing?  The old
+General knows my governor well--or rather did, years ago."
+
+"Did he?" was the sharp reply, as the speaker faced suddenly round.  "Ah
+well--yes--it is queer.  But the world's a pretty small one.  There goes
+the second bell," he added, in his normally unconcerned tones, as he
+again turned to the door.
+
+His manner struck even Philip, though faintly.  But for the fact that
+Fordham was literally a man in an iron mask, Philip could have sworn
+that the tone was a startled one.  That, however, was absurd, anyhow.
+Fordham was not even acquainted with Sir Francis.  The two had met and
+become intimate merely as travelling companions.
+
+"Well, Mr Fordham, what do you think of these young people's plan for
+to-morrow?" said General Wyatt as they met at table.
+
+"Not a bad one.  The valley of the Morge is well worth walking up, but
+you must start from here so as to catch the early steamer."
+
+"Make old Fordham go with us.  He says he won't," said Phil, in an
+undertone, to Alma Wyatt, next to whom he was seated, for the change of
+places had been effected satisfactorily to all parties concerned.  "You
+can get round him if any one can."
+
+"I don't know so much about that," she answered, with a smile.  "I'll
+try, though."  Then across the table, "Why do you say `_you_ must start
+early,' Mr Fordham, as if you weren't going with us?  You really must
+come.  The gentians, they say, are lovely up that valley.  We are quite
+reckoning on you."
+
+"To carry the gentians?" he rejoined drily.  "Or to pick them?"
+
+"Neither.  You shall talk to us while we pick them.  And you shall not
+carry anything, and we'll promise to be very good and give no trouble."
+
+Few men could have stood this appeal, or the look which accompanied it.
+Phil felt quite hot.  Though used to his friend's ways, he thought him
+an ill-conditioned dog at that moment.  Had he not unequivocally snubbed
+his--Phil's--divinity?  But the said divinity rather enjoyed it than
+otherwise.  For, in spite of the extremely derogatory deliverances we
+have just heard from Fordham's lips concerning her, Alma Wyatt was the
+only woman in the hotel to whom he had addressed a spontaneous remark;
+and she, so far from being offended at his brusqueness or taciturnity,
+looked upon him as a character, to be studied with avidity.
+
+"To put it on other grounds," she went on gaily.  "Uncle will be quite
+lost without you.  What will become of him all day with no one to argue
+with?"  She could not have ventured upon safer ground.  Fordham, though
+he detested women, by no means extended his antipathy to his own sex,
+and when away from the obnoxious skirts no man was better company.  He
+was a power in the smoking-room, and as a travelling companion very
+nearly perfect.  He and General Wyatt had become great friends during
+their short acquaintance, and now as it struck him that the old man had
+probably been relying upon his company for the proposed undertaking, his
+mind was made up.
+
+"Well, General, I shall be happy to make one of the party," he said.
+"And after all, if it's a case of rowing back across the lake, another
+oar won't come out of place."
+
+"Don't you think it very dangerous to cross the lake in a small boat?"
+struck in the Infliction, at his elbow.
+
+"Not if the weather's fine."
+
+"Ah, but don't you think storms come up very suddenly on this lake?"
+
+"Oh, Lord," said Phil in an undertone, "the Gadfly is getting her sting
+into old Fordham."
+
+"Be quiet, she'll hear you," replied Alma, trying to hide a laugh.
+"Besides, I want to enjoy the fun."
+
+But while Fordham was ruminating over a suitable extinguisher, a mild
+clergyman on the opposite side of the table struck in eagerly, and
+requested to know if that was really the case, and further manifested
+such a desire for information on that particular subject that the
+Infliction turned to him with reinvigorated purpose, and the rest were
+spared.  The good man had only arrived that evening, and little knew
+what floodgates he was opening.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE FIRE OF THE LIVE COAL.
+
+"I believe we are all here now," remarked Fordham, ironically, sending a
+significant glance round the little group assembled on the _debarcadere_
+at Montreux.
+
+"Better count and make sure," responded Scott, the parson, with an
+asinine guffaw.
+
+The first remark was evoked by the recollection that, even as they now
+stood watching the swift, shearing approach of the _Mont Blanc_ sweeping
+up to the jetty, so had they arrived on that spot some three hours
+earlier, just in time to gaze after the steamer preceding, as she
+disappeared round the promontory previous to standing in for Territet.
+And for having missed their boat, and lost three hours of the day, they
+had to thank the Miss Ottleys, or rather the maternal parent of those
+young ladies, who, with the usual feminine lack of a sense of the
+eternal fitness of things, had instructed them to combine business with
+pleasure, and execute sundry commissions for her in Montreux, on the way
+to the steamer.  Wherefore they--and the parson--had arrived at the pier
+in time to find the residue of the party gazing discontentedly after the
+receding boat.
+
+But no one would fall in with Fordham's suggestion to return.  If they
+had lost three hours' the days were long and the evenings moonlight.
+All agreed that they would wait for the next boat.
+
+"_En route_!" shouted the skipper, with his lips to the speaking-tube.
+The gangway was withdrawn with a bang--the great paddle-wheels churned
+the blue water into creamy foam, and the fine vessel, panting and
+snorting like a courser impatient of the momentary restraint, plunged
+forward as she swung round obedient to the hand of the helmsman.
+
+"What a disagreeable chap that man Fordham is," remarked Scott to the
+Miss Ottleys, with whom he had withdrawn to a comfortable corner of the
+deck.
+
+"He can be about as rude as any man I ever knew," returned the younger
+of the two girls, who had a hazy sort of idea that any man ought to
+think it rather an honour than otherwise to have all his arrangements
+thrown out by her dilatoriness.
+
+"I don't think we can blame him this time," objected the elder.  "It
+must have been very provoking to the dear old General as well."
+
+"Ah, he's different," said Scott.  "But that fellow Fordham just thinks
+the world was made to suit his convenience.  By the bye, who asked him
+to come to-day?"
+
+"Well, you see, it was Mr Orlebar who suggested the trip, and it isn't
+likely he'd leave his friend out."
+
+"Oh, ah--I see!  Pity he didn't though.  The fellow is a regular wet
+blanket."
+
+There was reason in the speaker's venom.  Scott, who held the proud
+position of English chaplain at Les Avants for that month, was a fair
+specimen of the young "masher" parson.  He wore a carefully-trimmed
+moustache and talked with a drawl.  He affected lawn tennis in
+preference to any other form of exercise because it enabled him to array
+his graceful five foot six of dimensions in faultlessly fitting
+flannels, and when so arrayed he was under the impression that Apollo
+himself might take a back seat.  He was not a gentleman by birth, and,
+having all the exuberant assurance of the self-estimating "ranker," was
+a standing offence to those who were.  Though made much of by a large
+section of the ladies, always ready to constitute a pet tame cat of a
+young parson, the men abhorred him.  His bumptiousness and chronic
+infringements of good form met with systematic snubbing, and on more
+than one occasion nothing but his "cloth" had saved him from being
+incontinently kicked.  Now of all the "setting down" he had received
+since his arrival at the hotel, that which he had encountered at the
+hands of Fordham had been the most merciless and exhaustive.
+
+The latter and General Wyatt were leaning against the taffrail smoking
+their cigars.
+
+"Have you known young Orlebar long?" the old man was saying.  "I
+gathered from what he told me that you had been travelling together for
+some years."
+
+"Well, we have only been a couple of months together this summer.  Last
+autumn, though, we returned from a thirteen months' trip to China and
+Japan, then home across the Rockies."
+
+"Indeed!  You ought to know of what sort of stuff a fellow is made after
+a trip of that kind with him."
+
+"Yes.  Phil is a good fellow enough, and he and I suit each other
+admirably.  He always does what he's told, and can stand being chaffed
+for his own good.  Not many fellows of his age can do that."
+
+"I like the boy," went on General Wyatt, "like him immensely.  He's a
+fine fellow--a finer fellow than his father was.  But it's a thousand
+pities he has no sort of profession, for when he comes into Claxby and
+the title he won't have too much to keep up either upon."
+
+"I suppose not," assented Fordham, indifferently.  "But then he hasn't
+got any expensive tastes or habits."
+
+"That's a very good point about him.  Still, if his father had put him
+into some profession instead of allowing him ample means to lead an idle
+life, it would have been all the better for him.  But that's Frank
+Orlebar all over.  He dotes upon the boy, and so feels bound to indulge
+him in every particular.  That sort of sentimentality was always a grave
+weakness in Frank Orlebar's character.  His heart was always stronger
+than his head, and it invariably led him into some serious blunder."
+
+"Didn't he come rather to grief once and have to go abroad for a time?"
+said Fordham, meditatively trimming the ash of his cigar with his
+thumbnail.  "Phil never mentioned it, but I seem to remember the case
+some twenty years back."
+
+"Oh, you remember it?" said the General, looking furtively around and
+lowering his voice.  "Well, it wasn't a `case' exactly--never came to
+that, luckily.  But there was the devil of a scandal, and Orlebar went
+abroad for a time.  It was said that he went to exchange shots with the
+injured party, and I believe he did, but whether either of them winged
+his man I'll be hanged if I know."
+
+On one of the benches in the forepart of the hurricane deck, gazing
+dreamily at the great wooded slopes sliding by as the steamer passed the
+storm-beaten walls of grim Chillon, revelling in the gorgeous
+magnificence of the flying scenery while keeping an ear for her
+companion's remarks, sat Alma Wyatt.
+
+"Do you know you answered me quite at random?" said Philip, with a
+laugh.
+
+"Did I?  Oh, how rude of me!  But--you must make allowances.  I find it
+quite impossible to take my attention entirely off these lovely shores
+and the mountains changing every minute as we go rushing through the
+water.  Look at them--all green and gold in this exquisite sunlight!
+Look at the dazzling white of the Dent du Midi there, in sharp contrast
+to the vivid blue of the sky!  And the lake--I have just counted no less
+than thirteen different shades on its surface where each tiny catspaw of
+wind sweeps it--thirteen, from the richest ultramarine to gold and plum
+colour and scarlet.  There, I am very gushing--am I not?--and you may
+laugh at me accordingly."
+
+"I certainly shall do nothing of the sort," he replied, eagerly.  "Do
+you suppose I am such a boor, such a Vandal that I can't enter into your
+ideas?  Perhaps I was thinking just the same things, only could not for
+the life of me express myself so beautifully."
+
+She looked him steadily in the face for a moment as though to read his
+thoughts, as though to detect the slightest trace of make-believe about
+his reply.  But his tones rang true and she was satisfied.
+
+"Then I shall proceed with my gush, and really end in making you laugh,"
+she resumed.  "But I do think that this eastern end of the Lake of
+Geneva must have been hewn out of a corner of Paradise."
+
+"And yet, there stands an eternal reminder to the contrary," he replied,
+pointing to the grim towers of Chillon which lay mirrored in clear-cut
+reflection upon the sapphire waters.  "Think of the numberless wretches
+racked and thumbscrewed and burnt within those walls in past centuries.
+Have you so soon forgotten that ghastly _oubliette_ they were driven
+down under a fraudulent promise of liberty?  It is said that remains
+occasionally come to light even to this day."
+
+"Ah, now you have drawn a sort of black line across my fair picture.
+You are upsetting my ideal just as Mr Fordham kept trying to do the
+other day when we were going over the castle.  Do you remember he
+pronounced the torture stake a fraud of the first magnitude, declaring
+that it had been renewed since he visited Chillon five years ago, and
+that Byron's name on the pillar in Bonivard's dungeon was probably a
+despicable sham and the work of some latter-day 'Arry?"
+
+"Yes, but we all agreed that even if it were genuine it was a rank act
+of 'Arrydom on the part of the bard, and by no means a thing to fall
+down in adoration before."
+
+"So we did.  As to the other things I don't like being disturbed in my
+illusions.  But a visit to these old castles and prisons with their
+hideous and varied appliances of torture and mutilation and death
+invariably tempts me seriously to wonder whether the world was not for
+centuries under the sway of some malignant fiend instead of a beneficent
+Ruler.  Just think a moment, as you were saying just now, over the
+unutterable horrors perpetrated in that castle alone, not to mention our
+own Tower of London and thousands of similar places scattered about the
+`civilised' world.  Why, it seems as if the one thought animating the
+mind of every one in authority was how to inflict the greatest and most
+ingenious forms of suffering upon his fellow-creatures.  Does not that
+look as if the world was under Satanic sway?  But there, you will be
+thinking me a very heterodox, not to say a wicked person."
+
+"I shall think you neither the one nor the other," he protested, warmly.
+The sweet seriousness and depth of thought characterising this girl
+constituted by no means the least of her attractions, and with all his
+sunny spirits and light-hearted susceptibility Philip Orlebar was poles
+apart from the ruck of contemporaneous _jeunesse doree_ whose talk is of
+the green room and the daily habits of this or that star actress.  He
+had ideas and a serious side, and could well appreciate the same in
+others.  And if in others, how much more in this one who was now
+exhibiting them.
+
+"But come," she resumed, gaily, changing her tone and manner with a
+suddenness as of the sunlight breaking through a cloud, "we had better
+turn our backs on gloomy Chillon, and only look upon and remember my
+`corner hewn out of Paradise.'  There--that little idea is all my own."
+
+Remember it? thought Philip.  Would he ever forget it?  The radiant
+glories of the summer day, the swift gliding movement over the flashing
+water, the great mountains around soaring up to the eternal blue, the
+sense of exhilaration in the mere delight of living--and tingeing,
+gilding all, touching with the fire of the live coal this fairyland of
+entrancing glow and sunlight, the magic of a subtle presence here at his
+side.  And the fire of that live coal was Love.
+
+Yes, it had come to this with him.  In spite of his friend's cynical
+warnings and more or less envenomed banter; in the teeth of all
+prudential considerations, of future advantage, ways and means, and
+such; in the face of the awkward fact that his acquaintanceship with her
+was one of barely ten days, Philip had come to admit to himself that
+life apart from Alma Wyatt would be but a dead and empty pretence at
+living.
+
+Barely ten days!  Could it be?  Less than one brief fortnight since his
+glance had first rested upon her, here on this very deck!  It seemed
+incredible.
+
+But she?  Her splendid eyes met his in conversation fully and
+fearlessly, their heavy dark lashes never drooping for a moment beneath
+his ardent gaze.  Never the faintest tinge of colour came into the warm
+paleness of the beautiful patrician face; never a tremor shook the
+sweetly modulated voice in response to his most eager efforts to please,
+in recognition of his most unmistakable "signs of distress."  Could she
+not guess?
+
+"I think the idea is a very sweet one," he rejoined, earnestly.  "A
+little corner of Paradise--that's just what it is."
+
+"Ahem!  We shall be at Bouveret in five minutes," struck in a drawling
+voice, not wholly guiltless of a cockney twang, recognisable as the
+property of Scott.  "Do you feel prepared to mount Shanks's mare, Miss
+Wyatt?"
+
+Alma murmured a very frigid reply, while Philip was obliged to turn away
+to conceal the fury which blazed forth from his visage, and further to
+quell an overmastering impulse which moved him to take the speaker by
+the scruff of his neck and drop him there and then overboard--in front
+of the paddle-wheels.  The free and easy patronising drawl of this
+insufferable cad made his blood surge again.
+
+"By the way, Miss Wyatt," went on the pachydermatous pastor, "I have a
+great mind to ask you to arbitrate.  I must say Mr Fordham is a pretty
+cool hand.  What do you think?  Here am I with this huge knapsack full
+of things to carry, and he positively declines to take his share.  That
+is--I've hinted to him pretty plainly that he ought to."
+
+"Fordham isn't a man who deals largely in hints," said Philip, facing
+round upon the speaker with a fierceness that almost made the latter
+recoil.  "If he were, he would doubtless hint that one beast of burden
+is sufficient for the party."
+
+Scott looked affronted.  Then his countenance suddenly cleared.  "Oh! we
+are going to take a horse with us then?" he said, gleefully.
+
+"No--an ass," returned Philip, quickly.
+
+Even the inflated layer of the other's self-esteem was not proof against
+this shaft.  It collapsed with its owner, who retired with a scowl to
+pour his grievance into haply more sympathising ears.  And by that time
+the steamer had crossed the broad and turgid belt where the snow-waters
+of the Rhone cleft in a sharply defined pathway the blue surface of the
+lake, and was slowing down to half-speed as she approached Bouveret
+pier.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE STORM ON THE LAKE.
+
+"Is there absolutely no way of getting on to St. Gingolph, Mr Fordham?"
+said the eldest Miss Ottley, ruefully.
+
+"You may put it in that way," was the tranquil reply.  "Unless we walk."
+
+The party, gathered round Fordham on the wooden pier, were not a little
+disappointed.  They had reckoned on changing steamers and going straight
+on without delay, for the _Mont Blanc_ went no further than Bouveret.
+Now they discovered that there was no steamer to change on to.
+
+"That's what comes of missing the early boat," resumed Fordham,
+mercilessly.  "You will kindly remember that I warned you I doubted the
+accuracy of my _horaire_, and that we should probably not find any
+steamer on this side, when you elected to come on by the _Mont Blanc_."
+
+This was undeniable, but it didn't seem to mend matters.
+
+"And now two courses lie open to us," he went on.  "We can either walk
+to St. Gingolph along the high road, or take a short cut round the base
+of the Grammont for Novel.  I should recommend the latter.  What do you
+say, General?"
+
+"Oh, I'm entirely in your hands.  What do the ladies think?"
+
+But the ladies voting unanimously for this plan it was carried
+forthwith.  Then suddenly it occurred to them that nobody knew the way.
+But they reckoned without Fordham.  He had never been over that
+identical ground, but he undertook to act as guide, and fulfilled his
+undertaking with admirable accuracy.  But they were not to reach their
+original destination, and it came about in this wise.
+
+The day was hot, and the path winding upward round the mountain-side,
+though charming as it led through beech and oakwoods, affording many a
+glimpse of the blue lake below, was both steep and rugged.  After about
+an hour the Miss Ottleys suggested a halt--and lunch.
+
+"This is a very tiring way, Mr Fordham," said one of them, "and it
+seems a very long one.  Are you quite sure we are going right?"
+
+"I see," was the short reply.  "You want me to say I am not quite sure.
+Well, what do you want to _do_--that's the point?"
+
+They looked at each other.
+
+"I think we had almost better have our picnic here," said the one who
+had first spoken.
+
+"I believe we had," said the other sister.  "This is a lovely spot."
+
+"If we stop here now we sha'n't get on to Novel at all," said Fordham.
+
+"Oh, hang Novel!" cut in Scott.  "I'm for stopping here.  What do _you_
+say, Miss Wyatt?"
+
+"I am perfectly ready to do what every one else wishes," answered Alma.
+
+"Fordham, old man, I believe we none of us want to go any further," said
+Philip.  "It's awfully hot, you know, and it'll be no end of a grind.
+It's a mistake, too, to make a toil of a pleasure.  I propose that we
+bivouac here, feed, and poke a smipe, and drop down quietly on St.
+Jingo--or whatever you call it--afterwards.  Let's put it to the vote."
+
+"All right," said Fordham, serenely.  "It's all one to me."
+
+Philip was right, the fact being that every one had had enough of it.
+So they ate their luncheon in the cool shade, and took their ease and
+were happy; and after a couple of hours or so started downward for the
+village, where they were to embark for the return voyage across the
+lake.
+
+"We might have had some difficulty in getting a boat," remarked Fordham.
+"As it happens, though, I saw my commissionaire, Francois Berthod, in
+Montreux, and he has a brother at St. Gingolph who owns one.  So I made
+him wire him to look out for us."
+
+But when they reached St. Gingolph a fresh deadlock seemed likely to
+arise.  There was not much demand for boatmen at the out-of-the-way,
+seldom-visited little village.  Accordingly those amphibious worthies
+were, one and all, absent, following their other avocations, and among
+them Jules Berthod.  To the whereabouts of the latter nobody seemed able
+to furnish a clue.  The woman who managed the wineshop opined that he
+had gone over to Bouveret, and would not return till late; but in any
+case it didn't matter, she being perfectly certain that neither Jules
+nor any other boat-owner would cross the lake that afternoon--an opinion
+abundantly backed up in unintelligible _patois_ by more than one
+blue-bloused boozer lounging on the wooden seats.
+
+But Fordham knew better, and he was right.  For, as luck would have it,
+who should arrive at that very moment but the missing Jules--a cheery,
+copper-faced athlete, who, recognising Fordham, made no great difficulty
+about the undertaking.  He glanced at the party, then at his boat;
+remarked dubiously that it was rather late in the day for crossing, and
+he should hardly get back that night; then shrugged his shoulders,
+ejaculated "_Enfin_," and straightway set off to haul in his craft.
+
+The latter, though roomy, was somewhat narrow of beam, and not so heavy
+as it looked.  There were seats for three rowers, each pulling a pair of
+sculls.
+
+"I'll take stroke, if it's all the same to everybody," said Philip.
+
+Fordham was about to demur, Philip being the heaviest man of the party,
+except perhaps the boatman, and there was abundance of weight in the
+stem; but remembering that Alma had been voted coxswain, he refrained.
+So Berthod was constituted bow, and Scott, eager to distinguish himself,
+took the remaining pair.
+
+It was five o'clock when they pushed off.  From St. Gingolph to Vevey
+the distance is about eight miles; therefore they reckoned upon barely
+two hours of easy pulling.  Another two hours' walk in the cool of the
+evening would bring them back to Les Avants almost before it was dark.
+
+"I don't think much of this sort of rowing," grumbled Scott, for about
+the third time as, with a final effort to scrape down some of the stars
+of heaven, he violently fouled Philip's oar.  "They don't seem to know
+what it is in this country.  Fancy having your oars hitched on to an
+iron peg, instead of running free in rowlocks.  Why, you can't even
+feather."
+
+"I suppose you went in for boating a good deal when you were at the
+'Varsity, Mr Scott?" remarked Fordham, innocently.  It was rather
+cruel, Scott being one of that rapidly increasing class of parson who
+has never kept terms at any university.
+
+"Er--not a very great deal--a little, that is," was the somewhat
+confused reply.
+
+"Didn't aspire to your college boat, eh?" said Philip, who ever since
+they started had been mentally anathematising this cockney 'Arry, whose
+alternate star-scraping and crab-catching efforts had kept him in a
+lively state of irritation and bad time.
+
+"Won't some of you young ladies favour us with a song?" suggested the
+General.  "Nothing like melody on the water."
+
+"Rather," said Philip.  "It'll send us along at twice the pace--inspire
+us, don't you know.  Make us keep time--if anything will," he added,
+significantly.
+
+There was some little demur among the girls, who were shy of singing
+without accompaniment.  Then they started the Canadian boat-song, and
+the effect of the clear voices floating out over the mirror-like water
+was pretty enough, for the said voices certainly did "keep tune," even
+though the oars--thanks to the star-scraping proclivities of the
+maladroit Scott--failed with exasperating frequency to "keep time."  And
+the scene was a lovely and a peaceful one, inspiring, too, if you came
+to contrast the utter insignificance of that cockleshell boat floating
+there on the blue expanse of lake, with the sombre grandeur of the great
+mountains--many a jagged and fantastic peak starting into view above and
+behind the abrupt forest-clad slopes sheering up from the water's edge
+as the distance widened between them and the Savoy shore.  Then,
+dominating the flat Rhone Valley, the towering Dent de Morcles, and
+further in the background the snowy head of the Mont Velan peeping round
+the volcano-like crest of the pyramid-shaped Mont Catogne, and above the
+green slopes around Les Avants, the rocky hump of the Naye shone red in
+the beams of the westering sun.
+
+But in spite of the calm and peaceful stillness lying alike upon the
+water and the encircling mountains, Jules Berthod seemed not altogether
+at ease.  There was a heavy loom of cloud over the purple Jura, which to
+the mind of the experienced boatman had no business to be there.  At the
+same time a kind of lurid opacity crept over the hitherto radiant sun.
+
+"_Crr-rre nom!  Si on allait nous flanquer un coup de vent, par
+exemple_!" he muttered between his teeth as he sent more than one uneasy
+glance to the westward.
+
+There was one upon whom that glance was not lost--who had also begun to
+read the face of the sky.  That one was Fordham.
+
+"What do you say to my taking your place, Mr Scott?" he said.  "We must
+be nearly half-way across by now.  If anything, rather more."
+
+Scott, who had had enough of it, jumped at this proposal, and sank down
+with a sigh of relief into the cushioned seat among the ladies.
+
+"When are we to take our turn?" asked the youngest Miss Ottley.
+
+"Better wait until we have broken the back of the work," answered
+Fordham, who knew, however, that no feminine hand was destined to handle
+the oar that day.
+
+"Bless my soul, but how chilly it has turned," said General Wyatt.
+
+It had--and more.  The boat no longer slid smoothly over the glassy
+water.  Something of a swell had arisen.
+
+"By Jove!  If only we had a sail we should slip along sweetly.  There's
+quite a little breeze getting up," said Philip, resting a moment on his
+oars.  "Well, we haven't, so it's of no use wishing.  But how about
+another song?  We want invigorating.  Does any one know the Eton fourth
+of June song?"
+
+It happened that nobody did, and Philip remarking that that inspiriting
+chorus was a thin affair if rendered as a solo, was urgently assured
+that he never was more mistaken in his life and as urgently pressed to
+give practical proof of the same.  Then the disputants abruptly paused.
+For Jules Berthod was resting on his oars, and seemed deep in a hurried
+consultation with Fordham, who, it will be remembered, now occupied the
+middle seat.
+
+"_Nom de nom_!" he growled.  "_Ca arrive--ca arrive.  Je l'attendais
+bien--allez_!"
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed Marian Ottley, with a shade of alarm.
+"Is it going to be rough, or what?"
+
+A heavy lumping swell was now running, into which the boat rose and fell
+with a plash and an angry hiss, as each well-timed, powerful stroke
+forced her through.  But a marvellous and magical change had come over
+the whole scene.  The great curtain of cloud seemed now to spread over
+half the lake, and was gliding on, on.  It stole up over the Savoy
+mountains, and each hitherto shining summit now reared itself dark and
+threatening against the inky veil.  It had thrown out an advance guard
+of flying scud, which already partially enshrouded the peaks and ridges
+dominating the Rhone Valley to the eastward, and still it crept on.  The
+air was stirred in fitful puffs, moaning and chill, and the sun had
+disappeared.  The sudden metamorphosis from golden unclouded afternoon
+to the brooding lurid gloom of half day was inexpressibly awesome--
+almost appalling.
+
+"Do you mind taking a `trick at the wheel,' General Wyatt?" said
+Fordham.  "We shall want some masterly steering directly."
+
+"No, uncle.  I can do it better than you," objected Alma, firmly.
+"That's one advantage my riverside dwelling has left me--handiness with
+the tiller ropes."
+
+"But you'll have to keep us head to a tolerably heavy sea," said
+Fordham.  "That is, not straight at it, but as nearly so as possible.
+You must not let her fall away on any account."
+
+"I thoroughly understand boats--in smooth water or rough," answered the
+girl, calmly.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Phil.  "Three cheers for our coxswain!"
+
+She spoke no more than the truth.  There was strength in those supple
+young wrists and judgment within that well-shaped head, and all there
+realised that the General at his age would make the more indifferent
+helmsman of the two.
+
+A whirring vibrating hum seemed to fill the air.  Over the water not
+half a mile distant stretched a dark line.  Nearer, nearer it came, and
+as it swept steadily on, those in the boat had no difficulty in making
+out a jagged, serrated ridge of leaping wave crests, banked up white and
+gleaming against the inky scud which seemed urging it on.  On, on--
+nearer, nearer.  It was a critical moment.  Most of those in the boat
+held their breath.  Could that cockleshell live a moment against that
+creaming surging wall of water rolling on to engulf it?
+
+Nearer--nearer!  The fearful roar of the advancing waves became
+stunning, deafening.  It was a terrible moment, and to those awaiting
+the shock it seemed as hours.  Philip, grasping his oars rigidly in the
+intensity of the crisis, cast one look over his shoulder at the
+advancing terror, then at the group in the stern-sheets.  The two Ottley
+girls had buried their faces in their hands.  Scott was livid, his eyes
+starting from his head.  Even the old General's face looked rigidly
+nerved for a desperate emergency.  But she who sat holding the tiller
+ropes--not a quiver was in her countenance.  There was the keenness of
+steel in her grey eyes, and the little hands seemed to conceal the
+strength of a vice, as the boat's head swept round to meet the advancing
+shock.
+
+It came.  With a mighty roar the huge wall of water struck them.  The
+little craft seemed literally flung into the air, then plashed down
+again, and those within her thought she had buried herself in the waves
+for good and all.  She reeled and rocked, and but for those firm hands
+that held the tiller ropes would have spun round and sunk headlong.
+Several great seas swept beneath her, leaving her half full of water,
+and the terrified shrieks of the two thoroughly frightened girls, the
+million bellowing voices of the gale, the roaring, hissing tongues of
+the leaping billows, the weird darkness of the lowering scud out of
+which leapt each succession of towering curling seas thundering down
+upon the tiny craft like ravenous monsters sure of their prey,
+constituted a scene and surroundings well calculated to try the boldest
+nerves.
+
+For awhile nobody spoke.  Those in charge of the boat knew exactly what
+to do, and did it--fortunately so, or the fate of every soul there was
+sealed.  In the teeth of the fierce tornado it was all the three strong
+men could do to keep steerage way on her, and well they knew that should
+she fall away for one instant the next would witness her capsize.  And
+ever the huge waves flung her from crest to crest, drenching her
+occupants, while the air was filled with clouds of spray torn from the
+breaking summits and hurled away high overhead.
+
+"Oh, my God!" shrieked Scott, his eyes starting from his wet and livid
+countenance, as a sudden volume of water struck him full on the neck,
+nearly knocking him overboard.  "Oh, my God!  We shall never see land
+again?"
+
+"Shut your mouth, you snivelling sneak?" said Philip, exasperated beyond
+all patience.  "Look at Miss Wyatt there and then heave your pitiful
+cowardly carcase overboard."  At which remark Fordham laughed aloud, his
+short, dry guffaw more sardonic than ever.
+
+But the wretched chaplain was impervious even to this humiliation, so
+abject, so overmastering was his terror.  He cowered in the bottom of
+the boat, his face hidden in his hands, moaning.
+
+"Get up, will you!" cried Fordham, savagely.  "You're in Miss Wyatt's
+way.  And make yourself useful if you can.  Take that hat of yours and
+bale like the devil."
+
+The peremptory tone had some effect, and the wretched man made an effort
+to obey.  But a fresh sea dashed the hat from his hands and carried it
+away.
+
+"This'll never do," muttered Fordham, in a tone only audible to Philip.
+"Why can't those two damned women rouse themselves and bear a hand,
+instead of screeching there like stuck pigs?"
+
+The General had been baling away manfully, but it was terribly uphill
+work, for every wave that struck the boat sent a pouring, hissing stream
+right into her.
+
+But if her two girl friends were cowering and trembling under the terror
+of death, no weakness of the kind had impaired the calm resolution of
+Alma Wyatt.  With head bent slightly forward and brows knitted, she
+never removed her steadfast glance from the work before her.  Her eyes
+full of blinding spray, her wrists stiff and aching with the terrible
+strain upon them, she watched the advance of each crushing billow,
+appalling, unnerving in its towering height, and the boat's head was
+held true, though her whole frame would tremble with the fearful
+exertion involved.  Philip, tugging manfully at his oars, noted all
+this.  Even though they should go down he did not care greatly, in the
+excitement and ecstasy of the moment.  They would die together, at any
+rate.
+
+The flying wrack was so thick that they could not see fifty yards around
+on either side.  Already it seemed darkening as with the closing in of
+twilight.  To lie tossing about on the angry surging expanse all night
+would be a serious matter.  Still, Fordham felt sure that the waves had
+somewhat abated in fierceness.  But the muttered remark of Jules Berthod
+behind him shattered this hope just as he was on the point of expressing
+it.
+
+"_Nom de Dieu!  Cochon de veni!  Voila que ca va nous accrocher de
+nouveau.  Cette fois on va chavirer.  Oui, cette fois on coulera--nom de
+nom_!"
+
+Again that terrible vibrating hum was in the air.  A fresh gust was upon
+them.  The boat half full of water, all hands nearly played out after
+their abnormal exertions--how could they live out a fresh tornado?
+
+"All up, Phil.  Stand clear for a swim directly," he said, in an
+undertone.
+
+Philip could hardly repress a start.  Well he knew the other would not
+so have spoken without good reason.  Besides, the hideous symptoms of
+renewed tempest were now manifest even to his ear.  He looked hard at
+Alma, and his plans were laid.  The instant the boat went over he would
+seize her and drag her clear of the struggling crowd.  If possible he
+would secure an oar, which would help to keep them up.  He was a strong
+swimmer and felt that they might stand a chance.  At the same time he
+realised that it would be a very poor one.
+
+On it came, the howling of the hurricane, the livid line of boiling
+seas.  But this time not in that mountainous wall, for the windows of
+heaven were opened and a mighty rain descended with such violence as to
+beat down the heads of the waves, which, flattened beneath the terrific
+force of the downpour, had lost much of their power for peril.  For a
+quarter of an hour this continued, then a red straggling glow stole
+athwart the livid scud.
+
+"_Bon_!" muttered Jules.  "_Cette fois on ne coulera pas.  Mais non_!"
+
+The red glow brightened.  Suddenly as the parting of curtains, the dark
+wrack opened out, revealing a patch of blue sky.  Then a golden sun-ray
+shot through, and lo! the whole ridge of the purple Jura, lying beyond
+the great heaving, tumbling mass of blue water dotted with myriads of
+white foamy crests.
+
+"Hurrah!" roared Philip.  "We've weathered it this time.  Fordham, old
+chap, isn't that our haven?" as a grey town about three miles distant
+stood disclosed by the retreating scud.
+
+"Yes, that's Vevey all right," was the answer.  "Give way.  We shall be
+there in half an hour or so.  I needn't tell you how to steer now, Miss
+Wyatt.  Hold up for a little while longer, Mr Scott.  This company does
+not carry a steward."  For the unfortunate chaplain, relieved of his
+fears as to mortal extinction, began to show symptoms of falling a prey
+to the agonies of sea sickness.
+
+There was still a pretty stiff sea running, and every now and then a
+wave would strike them, sousing them from head to foot.  But it was
+little enough they cared for this after their recent experiences, and
+soon the boat was running in under the lee of the _debarcadere_.
+
+Quite a little crowd had collected to witness the landing of these "mad
+English," as they put it.  Then, directing Berthod to call later for the
+very liberal remuneration awaiting him, the whole party started for the
+Hotel Monnet to get their dripping clothes dried and to dine, causing
+quite a sensation as they hurried through the streets of the sleepy
+little town, in their capacity of shipwrecked castaways.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+AN INOPPORTUNE REMINDER.
+
+Life at a mountain hotel affected by our compatriots is very much like
+life on board a passenger ship, with the difference and manifest
+advantages that the Johnsonian definition of the latter does not apply
+to the former, and you can generally steer clear of a bore--unless he,
+or she, should happen to be too near you at table, that is.  But life on
+the whole is a free and easy unconventional thing, and as a rule
+everybody knows everybody, and people who as neighbours at home would
+take about two years to get beyond the rigid afternoon call, and
+cup-of-weak-tea stage of social intercourse, here become as "thick as
+thieves" in the same number of days.  A chance walk does it, or a seat
+in proximity at _table d'hote_; peradventure the fact that both venerate
+the same star Boanerges at home, or are alike enthusiastic believers in
+"General" Booth's scheme; or it may be that both hold in common a choice
+bit of scandal concerning some other person or persons in the house.
+And then, as our said compatriots are nothing if not clique-ish,
+coteries will abound wherever these may be gathered together.  There
+will be the chaplain's clique and the worldly clique; the clique that
+won't tolerate bores at any price, and that in which they reign
+paramount, and so on, and so on.  But with all these dubious elements of
+weak humanity in active operation, life at such an hotel is rather a
+pleasant thing than otherwise, and to him who can derive diversion from
+the study of a heterogeneous crowd of his compatriots off their guard,
+vastly amusing.
+
+Now with a gathering of this sort, three-fourths of it composed of the
+other sex, such a fellow as Philip Orlebar was pretty sure to be in
+general request; and within forty-eight hours of his arrival he was on
+good terms with very nearly everybody in the house.  In fact, he was in
+danger of becoming "the rage"; for, apart from his good looks and rather
+taking manners, the superior sex was almost entirely represented by two
+or three quiet university men, a sprinkling of parsons, and a few
+contemporaries of General Wyatt.  So, as was his wont, he threw himself
+with zest into the thing, determined to get all the fun out of it he
+could; and, truth to tell, he managed to get a good deal.
+
+When Fordham, on the day of their arrival, predicted for himself a
+series of solitary undertakings, as far as his friend's company was
+concerned, he was foretelling no more than the truth.  For an expedition
+_a deux_, he, Fordham, being the second, Philip was never available.
+The Misses This wanted to be taken up the Cape-au-Moine, or the Misses
+That had organised a picnic to the Folli or the Cret de Molard; but why
+the deuce couldn't Fordham shake himself together and be sociable, and
+come too?  To which the latter would tranquilly reply that the _role_ of
+universal flunkey was not congenial to his temperament.
+
+Of late, however, Master Phil's popularity had been on the wane.  While
+he was an open question, each and all the damsels up there "on spec,"
+with but few exceptions, vied with each other to make things pleasant
+for him, and their mammas showed unimpeachable dentist's fronts in
+beaming approval of their efforts.  But when he devoted himself to one,
+and one only, manifestly and exclusively, then it became surprising how
+suddenly all these little attentions cooled down; how the dimpling smile
+became an acidulated sneer, and the bell-like voice rang a hard note;
+how the mammas aforesaid awoke to the fact that he seldom went to
+church, and when he did it was only to sit near that Miss Wyatt.
+
+"That Miss Wyatt," however, must be held to constitute pre-eminently one
+of the few exceptions referred to above.  If Philip Orlebar had
+concentrated all his attentions upon her with that blundering suddenness
+men will be guilty of under such circumstances, she certainly had not
+given him a lead; in fact, he was wont to complain bitterly to himself--
+and sometimes to Fordham--that she treated him rather too calmly, might
+give him a few more opportunities.  But Alma Wyatt was not the sort of
+girl who gives "opportunities."
+
+Fordham's comment was characteristic.
+
+"Oh! the divinity has a fault, then?  See here, Phil.  Supposing she had
+never come here, you would have cut out one of those other girls as your
+divinity, _pro tem_, and have planted her on a pedestal in the usual
+way.  Now you see what sort of a crowd they are.  Why do you think the
+other one more endowed with god-like attributes than they?  I tell you
+all women are deadly alike, in spite of the spurious philosophical cant
+which affects to stamp them as an unknown quantity, inscrutable,
+mysterious, and so forth.  The fact being that there is nothing
+incomprehensible about them or their ways except to such of ourselves
+who are greater fools than they.  Now to me it is a perfectly safe
+conjecture how any given woman will act under any given circumstances."
+
+"How do you get at it?"
+
+"By starting on the sure basis that she will act with cussedness, either
+overt or concealed, be it remembered.  But what I want you to see is,
+that as long as you go on setting up these clay idols _pro tem_, it's
+all right.  Only don't come to me and ask me to help you to hang one of
+them round your neck for life.  You'll find it a lumping heavy burden,
+my boy, I don't care who it is, even if it doesn't throttle you at the
+start."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Two days after the boating incident Philip was strolling in the garden
+of the hotel with Alma and her aunt.  It was Sunday, and they had just
+returned from the little tabernacle where, during his month of office,
+the irrepressible Scott dispensed spiritual nourishment to his flock--or
+was supposed to--and whither it is to be feared that one of the trio had
+betaken himself in obedience to the vitiated motives ascribed to him by
+sundry disappointed mammas above mentioned.
+
+"What do you think I heard some of them saying as we came out of
+church?" said Mrs Wyatt, with an amused smile.  "That Mr Scott's
+sermon about the storm on Gennesaret was the finest ever preached."
+
+"Ha-ha!  So it was, in one sense," said Philip.  "I know I was divided
+between an impulse to hurl a book at his head and to roar out laughing.
+You should have seen the fellow grovelling at the bottom of the boat and
+screaming--Wasn't he, Miss Wyatt?"
+
+"The poor man was rather frightened, certainly," replied Alma.  "But I
+never for a moment expected we should live through it.  In fact, I was
+horribly frightened myself--quite shaken all day yesterday."
+
+"_You_!" cried Philip, in a blending of admiration and tenderness and
+incredulity.  "I never heard such a libel in my life.  But for your
+splendid nerve we should all have gone to the bottom, to a dead
+certainty.  Even old Fordham admitted that much."
+
+"No--no?" expostulated Alma, a tinge of colour suffusing her face.
+"Please don't try and make a heroine of me.  And, talking of Mr
+Fordham, you know I told you the other day I didn't like him, and you
+were very much offended with me."
+
+"I might have been with any one else," he replied, meaningly.
+
+"Well, now," she went on rather shyly, "I want to retract what I said
+then.  I never saw a man behave so splendidly in an emergency as he
+did."
+
+We dare not swear that the suspicion of a jealous pang did not shoot
+through Phil's loyal heart at this warmly-spoken eulogy.  But if so, he
+did manful penance by promptly informing his friend.  Fordham gave vent
+to a sardonic chuckle.
+
+"That's a woman all over.  She allows her deliberately-formed judgment
+to be clean overthrown by a mere fortuitous circumstance.  From looking
+upon me with aversion and distrust the pendulum now swings the other
+way, and she invests me with heroic virtues because on one occasion I
+happen to demonstrate the possession of a negative quality--that of
+_not_ being afraid, or seeming not to be.  Faugh! that's a woman all
+over!  All impulse and featherhead."
+
+Which was all poor Alma's warm-hearted little retraction gained from
+this armour-plated cynic; but she had the negative consolation of never
+knowing it.
+
+"It isn't the first time I've seen him all there at a pinch; in fact, he
+got me out of a queer corner once when we were in China.  I shouldn't be
+here or any where to-day, but for him.  But it was a horrid business,
+and I can't tell you how he did it; in fact, I hardly like to think of
+it myself."
+
+The look of vivid interest which had come over Alma's face faded away in
+disappointment.
+
+"Have you been roaming the world long together?" she said.
+
+"Perhaps a couple of years, on and off.  We ran against each other first
+in the course of knocking about.  It was at a bull-fight in Barcelona.
+We had adjoining seats and got into conversation, and, as Britishers are
+few in the Peninsula, we soon became thick.  But, you know, although
+he's the best fellow in the world once you know him, old Fordham has his
+cranks.  For instance, he's a most thorough and confirmed woman-hater."
+
+"I suppose he was badly treated once," said Mrs Wyatt.  "Still, it
+strikes me as a foolish thing, and perhaps a little childish, that a man
+should judge all of us by the measure of one."
+
+"I don't know, aunt," said Alma.  "It may be foolish from a certain
+point of view, morbid perhaps; but I think it shows character.  Not many
+men, I should imagine, except in books, think any of us worth grieving
+over for long; and the fact that one affair turning out disastrously
+should stamp its mark on a man's whole life shows that man to be endowed
+with a powerful capacity for feeling."
+
+"Perhaps so," assented the old lady.  "But, Alma, I don't know what Mr
+Orlebar will think of us taking his friend to pieces in this
+free-and-easy fashion."
+
+"My dear Mrs Wyatt, there is really nothing to be uneasy about on that
+score," cried Philip.  "We are not abusing him, you know, or running him
+down.  And by the way, queer as it may seem, I know absolutely no more
+of Fordham's earlier life than you do.  He may have had an `affair,' or
+he may not.  He has never let drop any clue to the mystery--if mystery
+there is."
+
+"You see, auntie, how different men are to us poor girls," said Alma,
+with a queer little smile.  "They know how to keep their own counsel.
+No such thing as pouring out confidences, even to their closest
+friends!"
+
+There was a vague something about her tone and look which struck Philip
+uncomfortably.  He could not for the life of him have told why, yet the
+feeling was there.  Not for the first time either.  More than once had
+Alma shown indications of a very keen tendency to satire underlying her
+normal openness of ideas and the fascination of her utterly unaffected
+manner.  For a few moments he walked by her side in silence.
+
+It was a lovely day.  The air was heavy with the scent of narcissus and
+roses; languid and glowing with the rich warmth of early summer.  Great
+bees drowsily boomed from flower to flower, dipping into the purple
+pansies, hovering round a carnation, and now and again unwarily
+venturing within the spray of the sparkling fountain.  A swallow-tail
+butterfly on its broad embroidered wings fluttered about their faces so
+tamely, that by stretching out a hand they could almost have caught it.
+Cliff and abrupt slope, green pastureland and sombre pine forest, showed
+soft and slumbrous in the mellow glow; while overhead, her burnished
+plumage shining in the sun, floated a great eagle, the rush of whose
+pinions was almost audible in the noontide stillness as the noble bird
+described her airy circles in free and majestic sweep.  An idyllic day
+and an idyllic scene, thought Philip, with more than one furtive glance
+at the beautiful face by his side.
+
+Then, as usual at such moments, in came the prose of life in the shape
+of the post.  A green-aproned porter, a sheaf of letters in his hand,
+drew near.
+
+"_Pour vous, Monsieur_!" he said, handing one to Philip.
+
+When a man starts, or describes a ridiculous _pirouette_ at a street
+crossing because a hansom cabman utters a war-whoop in his ear, it is
+safe to assume that man's nerves to be--well, not in the state they
+should be.  But the war-whoop of the hansom cab fiend athirst for--
+bones, is nothing in the way of a test compared with the wholly
+unexpected receipt of an objectionable and unwelcome letter.  When
+Philip took the missive from the porter's hand, a glance at the
+superscription was enough.  A very dismayed look came over his
+countenance.  He held the obnoxious envelope as though it might sting
+him, then crushed it hurriedly into his pocket.  But not before he, and
+peradventure his companion, had seen that it was directed in a very
+slanting, pointed, and insignificant feminine hand.
+
+Then the luncheon bell rang.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+"BEST TO BE OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, BEFORE..."
+
+Philip was not up to his usual form during luncheon.  Any one in the
+secret would have said that that letter was burning a hole in his
+pocket.  It seemed to affect his appetite; it certainly affected his
+conversational powers.  More than once he answered at random; more than
+once he relapsed into a spell of silence, almost of gloom, wholly
+foreign to his breezy and light-hearted temperament.  Yet he was still
+in ignorance of its contents.  He might have mastered them when he went
+up to his room at the ringing of the bell, yet he did not.  Now,
+however, he wished that he had.
+
+Fordham, glancing sharply at him across the table, more than three parts
+made up his mind as to the cause of this abnormal gravity and
+abstraction on the part of his volatile friend.  He knew he had been
+wandering about with Alma Wyatt--the old lady had not been with them all
+the time--and was inclined to believe that the impulsive Phil had,
+contrary to his own advice, both hinted and outspoken, committed
+himself.  At the same time he recognised that if that was so the answer
+had not been altogether satisfactory.  In short, he decided that Master
+Phil had received a "facer," and chuckled internally thereat.
+
+The lunch at last over, Philip gained his room.  The first thing he did
+was to lock the door.  Then, drawing the obnoxious missive from his
+pocket, he tore it open, with something that sounded very like a
+"cussword," and spread the sheet out on the table before him.  The
+sheet?  There were seven of them, all of the flimsiest paper, all
+closely written over on every side, in that thin, pointed, ill-formed
+hand.  Well, he had got to go through them, so with a sort of effort he
+began.
+
+"My own dear, dear old darling Phil,--It is just ages, months, years,
+centuries, since poor little I heard from you, you dreadfully awfully
+naughty, naughty boy!"
+
+"Oh, Lord!" he ejaculated, turning the sheets over, in a kind of
+despair, as if to see how much more of this sort of thing was coming.
+But he derived no modicum of solace from his investigation, for there
+was a great deal more of it coming--in fact, the whole seven sheets
+full.  Seven sheets of the sort of stuff that sets the court in a roar,
+and melts the collective heart of the dozen empanelled grocers and
+ironmongers gathered there to mulct the unwary of the substantial salve
+which should heal the wounds of the lovely and disconsolate--if slightly
+intriguing--plaintiff.  And, as he read, an uncomfortable misgiving that
+it might ultimately come to this, invaded his mind more than once.
+
+With a sigh of relief he turned the last page, but the feeling was
+promptly nipped in the bud as he read:--
+
+"I've been at Pa again and again to take us abroad this year; how jolly
+it would be if we were to meet again in that love of a Switzerland,
+wouldn't it, dear boy?  But no such luck, he won't, and we are going to
+St. Swithins instead, and it's the next best thing, and I do _love_ St.
+Swithins, and I shall think the blue sea is the Lake of Geneva and you
+are there.  But we will go all over it together soon, you and I alone,
+won't we, Phil, darling, you and your little Edie."  Then followed half
+a dozen lines of appropriate drivel, and a postscript:--"Be sure you
+send me a big bunch of adleweis from the top of the Matterhorn."
+
+If ever a man felt nauseated with himself and all the world, assuredly
+that man was Philip Orlebar, as he sat staring at this effusion.  Its
+fearful style--or rather utter lack of it--its redundancy of
+conjunctions, its far from infrequent mis-spellings, its middle-class
+vulgarity of gush, would at any other time have been amusing, if
+painfully so; now it was all absolutely revolting.  He took it up again.
+"`Adleweis!'  (why couldn't the girl borrow a dictionary), and `from
+the _top_ of the Matterhorn' (ugh!)  And St. Swithins, staring,
+cockneyfied, yahoo-ridden St. Swithins, with its blazer-clad 'Arries and
+shrimp-devouring 'Arriets, its nigger minstrels and beach conjurers!
+(faugh!)  What sort of a mind--what sort of ideas had the girl got?
+Then again, `dear boy'!  Fancy Alma--" and at this suggestion he dropped
+the missive, and, starting up, began to pace the room.
+
+"`We will go all over it together soon!'  Will we, though!" he muttered
+bitterly.  And then, with a savageness begotten of a feeling of being
+cornered, trapped, run to earth, he began to wonder whether he should
+suffer himself to be taken possession of in this slap-dash fashion.  Had
+he really given himself away beyond recall!  Old Glover entertained
+splendidly, and the sparkling burgundy was more than first-rate.  What a
+fool he had been.  Still it seemed impossible that Edith should have
+taken seriously all he said--impossible and preposterous!  Yes,
+preposterous--if all that a man said while sitting out with a pretty
+girl, in a deliciously cool and secluded corner of the conservatory--
+after that first-rate sparkling burgundy too--was to be twisted into a
+downright proposal--an engagement.  By Jove, it was--preposterous!
+
+But through all his self-evolved indignation Philip could not disguise
+from himself that he had acted like a lunatic, had, in fact, given
+himself away.  Between his susceptibility to feminine admiration and his
+_laisser faire_ disposition, he had allowed his relations with Edith
+Glover to attain that stage where the boundary between the ordinary
+flirtatious society acquaintance and the affianced lover has touched
+vanishing point.  The girl was pretty, and adored his noble self.  Old
+Glover, who was a merchant-prince of some sort or other and rolling in
+money, would be sure to "come down" liberally.  On the whole he might do
+worse.  So he had reasoned.  But now?
+
+Throughout his perusal of that trying effusion his mind's eye had been
+more than half absorbed in a vision of Alma Wyatt--Alma as he had last
+seen her--the sweet, patrician face, the grey earnest eyes, the
+exquisite tastefulness of her cool white apparel, the grace and poetry
+of her every movement, the modulated music of her voice.  It seemed a
+profanation to contrast her--to place her on the same level with this
+other girl--this girl with her middle-class ideas, vile orthography, and
+exuberant gush.
+
+What was he to do? that was the thing.  Should he send a reply--one so
+chilling and decisive as to leave room for no further misapprehension?
+That would never do, he decided.  The Glovers were just the sort of
+people to come straight over there and raise such a clamour about his
+ears that he might safely wish himself in a hornets' nest by contrast.
+This they might do, and welcome, were it not for Alma.  But then, were
+it not for Alma it is probable to the last degree that he would have
+drifted on, contented enough with the existing state of things.
+
+"Heavens and earth, I believe old Fordham is right after all?" he
+ejaculated at last.  "Women are the devil--the very devil, one and all
+of them.  I'll adopt his theory.  Shot if I don't!"
+
+But profession and faith are not necessarily a synonym.  Between our
+would-be misogynist and the proposed mental transformation stood that
+bright and wholly alluring potentiality whose name was Alma Wyatt.
+
+With an effort he locked away the obnoxious missive, wishing to Heaven
+he could lock up the dilemma he was in as easily and indefinitely.
+Should he consult Fordham?  No, that wouldn't help matters; besides, he
+shrank from having to own that he had made a consummate ass of himself,
+nor did he feel disposed just then to open his heart even to Fordham.
+How beastly hot it had become!  He would stay up in his room and take it
+easy--have a read and a smoke.  Hang everybody!  And with a growl he
+kicked off his boots, and, picking up a Tauchnitz novel, flung himself
+on the bed and lighted his pipe.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Rat-tat-tat-tat!  Then a voice.  "You there, Phil?  The first
+dinner-bell has gone!"
+
+He started up.  The knock and the voice were Fordham's.  It was a
+quarter-past six, and he had been asleep just three hours.
+
+"We were afraid you had heard bad news, Mr Orlebar," said Mrs Wyatt,
+as he slid into his seat a quarter of an hour late.  "You haven't, have
+you?"
+
+"Oh, no," he answered, with splendid mendacity.  "I've been feeling a
+little pulled down to-day, and dropped off to sleep without knowing it."
+
+"The thunder in the air, I suppose," said Alma, with a bright,
+mischievous glance.  "We had such a nice walk up to the Cubly, when it
+began to get cool."
+
+"The Cubly?"
+
+"Yes.  Uncle was looking for you everywhere, but, as it happens, it was
+lucky we didn't disturb you.  Besides, we feared you might have had bad
+news."
+
+This was what he had missed then--all through that infernal letter too.
+He felt more savage than ever.  Bad news?  Yes he had, and no mistake.
+But the next moment he was destined to hear worse.
+
+"I'm sorry to say we are obliged to cut short our stay here," General
+Wyatt was saying to Fordham.  "Some friends whom we had arranged to meet
+have wired us to join them at the Grindelwald--an old brother officer
+and his family.  They have turned up sooner than we expected, and,
+reckoning on our promise to join them, have already engaged our rooms.
+In fact they could not have got them otherwise, for the hotel is filling
+up rapidly."
+
+"Sorry to hear that, General--very sorry.  When do you leave?"
+
+"Not later than Tuesday, I'm afraid.  That'll give this young person a
+day clear for a final walk or climb."
+
+Here was a bolt from the blue with a vengeance, thought Philip.
+
+"I don't want to go in the least," said Alma.  "Don't you think," she
+added, with a flash of merriment, "it's hateful to leave a place just as
+you have become fond of it?"
+
+"Hateful isn't the word for it," replied Philip, with savage vehemence.
+
+"But don't you think you may become just as fond of where you're going?"
+struck in the eternal female opposite.
+
+"I'm perfectly sure you won't in this case," said Fordham, speaking to,
+and answering for, the Wyatts at the same time.  "The Grindelwald is
+about the most noisy, crowded, and cheap-tripper-ridden resort in the
+Alps.  A chronic dust cloud overhangs the whole Lutschinen Thal by
+reason of a perennial string of vehicles ascending from and descending
+to Interlaken with scarce a break of fifty yards.  You can't go on a
+glacier without paying gate-money--a franc a head.  Fancy that!  Fancy
+reducing a glacier to the level of a cockney tea-garden!  Then between
+the village and either of the said glaciers is an ever-moving stream of
+the personally conducted, mostly mounted on mules and holding umbrellas
+aloft."
+
+"But don't you think you are painting poor Grindelwald in very
+unattractive colours?" expostulated the Infliction.
+
+"Think?  No, I'm sure of it," was the short reply.  "And I haven't done
+yet.  The place swarms with beggars and cadgers.  Go where you will, you
+are beset by small ragamuffins pestering you to purchase evil-looking
+edelweiss blossoms or mobbing your heels to be allowed to show you the
+way, which you know a vast deal better than they do.  Every fifty yards
+or so you come upon the Alpine horn fiend, prepared to make hideous
+melody for a consideration; or wherever a rock occurs which can by any
+chance produce an echo, there lurks a vagabond ready to explode a
+howitzer upon receipt of a franc.  No.  Taking it all in all, I don't
+think one is far out in defining Grindelwald as the Rosherville of
+Switzerland."
+
+"That sounds truly dreadful," said Alma.  "But were it the reverse I
+should still be sorry to leave here--very sorry."
+
+"We must get up a jolly long walk to-morrow," said Philip, eagerly.
+"It'll be the last time, and we ought to have a good one.  Let's go up
+the Cape au Moine."
+
+"But isn't that a very dangerous climb?" objected Mrs Wyatt.
+
+"Oh, no.  At least, I believe not.  Wentworth, who has been up ever so
+many times, says it's awfully over-rated.  But we'll get him to come
+along and to show us the way."
+
+Fordham looked quickly up, intending to throw cold water on the whole
+scheme.  But Philip's boot coming in violent and significant contact
+with a rather troublesome corn, stifled in a vehement scowl the remark
+he was about to make, as his friend intended it should.
+
+"That'll be delightful," assented Alma, gleefully.  "Now who shall we
+ask to go?  Mr Wentworth, the two Ottleys--they are sure to ask Mr
+Scott."
+
+"Should have thought that boat experience would have choked _him_ off
+any further enterprise," grunted Fordham.
+
+"That'll be four," went on Alma, not heeding the interruption.  "Then
+you two, uncle and myself--eight altogether.  We ought to be roped.
+It's a real climb, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, very," said Fordham.  "So real that not half of us will reach the
+top."
+
+"Well, I mean to for one," declared Alma.  "And oh, I do hope it'll be
+fine."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+ON THE CAPE AU MOINE.
+
+Alma's wish was destined to be fulfilled, for the morning broke clear
+and cloudless.  Starting in the highest spirits, a couple of hours' easy
+walking brought the party to the foot of the steep and grassy slope
+which leads right up to the left _arete_ of the Cape au Moine.
+
+Though the morning was yet young it was uncomfortably warm.  The mighty
+grass slopes of the Rochers des Verreaux, of which the Cape au Moine is
+the principal summit, stood forth with the distinctness of a steel
+engraving, so clear was the air.  A suspicious clearness which, taken in
+conjunction with certain light cloud streamers flecking the sky, and the
+unwonted heat of that early hour, betokened to the practised eye an
+impending change of weather.
+
+"Wet jackets," remarked Wentworth, laconically, with a glance at these
+signs.
+
+"Likely enough," assented Fordham.  "Hallo! what's the row down there?
+They seem to be beginning already."
+
+These two were leading the way up the steep, slippery path, and were a
+little distance ahead of the rest.  The above remarks referred to a
+sudden halt at the tail of the party, caused by one of the Miss Ottleys
+finding her heart fail her: for the path at that point skirts the very
+brink of a precipice.
+
+"Only what I expected," sneered Fordham.  "Look at that, Wentworth.
+What sort of figure will all these women cut when we get them up on the
+_arete_ yonder, if they can't stand an easy, beaten track up a grass
+slope?  We shall have them squalling and hystericking and fainting, and
+perhaps taking a header over.  Eh?"
+
+Wentworth merely shrugged his shoulders.  "Who is that new specimen
+they've caught?" he said, as, the difficulty apparently overcome, the
+group behind was seen to resume its way.
+
+"That?" said Fordham, glancing at the person indicated, a tallish,
+loosely-hung youth in knickerbockers, who seemed to be dividing his time
+between squiring the Miss Ottleys and arguing with Scott, the parson.
+"Don't know who he is--and don't want to.  Confound the fellow!--began
+`Fordham-ing' me after barely a quarter of an hour's talk.  Name's
+Gedge, I believe.  I suppose some of the women cut him into this trip."
+
+"Most probably," replied Wentworth.  "I haven't exchanged any remarks
+with him myself.  But he sits near me at table and talks nineteen to the
+dozen.  It's like having a full-sized cow-bell swinging in your ear just
+the time you are within his proximity."
+
+"They say everything has its use," returned Fordham, meditatively.  "I
+own to having discovered a use for friend Gedge--viz, to demonstrate
+that there can actually exist a more thoroughly self-sufficient and
+aggressive bore than even that fellow Scott."
+
+The other laughed.  And by this time they had gained the dip where the
+path--a mere thread of a track--crosses the high ridge of the Chaine des
+Verreaux at its extreme end, and sat down to await the arrival of the
+residue of the party.
+
+The latter, broken up into twos and threes, was straggling up the slope.
+The temporary impediment had apparently been successfully overcome, and
+the trepidation of the fearful fair one removed.  Still, to those
+unaccustomed to heights it was nervous work, for the path was, as we
+have said, a mere thread, intersecting the long, slippery grass, more
+treacherous than ice, of the frightfully steep mountain-side--and lying
+below was more than one precipice, comparatively insignificant, but high
+enough to mean a broken limb if not a broken neck.
+
+"Well, Miss Wyatt, do you feel like going the whole way?" said
+Wentworth, as Alma, with her uncle and Philip Orlebar, gained the ridge
+where they were halted.
+
+"Of course I do," she answered gaily.  "I always said I would get to the
+top if I got the chance--and I will."
+
+"There are five _aretes_--three of them like knife-blades," pursued
+Wentworth, who rather shared Fordham's opinions regarding the other sex.
+"What if you begin to feel giddy in the middle of one of them?"
+
+"But I'm not going to feel anything of the kind," she answered, with
+defiant good-humour.  "So don't try and put me off, for it's of no use."
+
+"I say, Fordham," sung out a sort of hail-the-maintop voice, the
+property of the youth referred to as Gedge, as its owner climbed puffing
+up to where they sat, followed by the rest of the party.  "I don't think
+overmuch of this Cape au Moine of yours.  Why one can dance up it on one
+leg."
+
+"And one can dance down it on one head--and that in a surprisingly short
+space of time--viz, a few seconds," said Wentworth, tranquilly.
+"However, you'll see directly."
+
+"Well, who's going up and who's going to wait for us here?" said Philip,
+after a rest of ten minutes or so.
+
+"I don't think we are," said the elder Miss Ottley.  "I more than half
+promised mamma we wouldn't.  And Monsieur Dufour says it's such a
+dangerous mountain.  We'll stay here and take care of General Wyatt."
+
+There was some demur to this on the part of the more inexperienced
+section of the males.  The experienced ones said nothing.
+
+"You'd better stay with us, Alma," said the General, with a shade of
+anxiety.  "Remember there have been several people killed up there."
+
+"Just why I particularly want to go, uncle.  I want to be able to say I
+have been up a mountain on which several people have been killed."
+
+"I think Miss Wyatt has a steady enough head, General," said Wentworth,
+who was an experienced Alpine climber.  "At least, judging from the way
+in which she stood looking over that precipice down yonder, I should say
+so.  If she will allow me I will take care of her."
+
+"I'll be hanged if you will though!" said Phil to himself.  And then
+they started.
+
+The mere climbing part of what followed was not hard.  But what was apt
+to prove trying to the nerves of the uninitiated was when, after feeling
+their way carefully along the narrow ledge-like path which runs beneath
+the rocks near the crest of the ridge, they came right out upon the
+summit of the _arete_ itself.  Here, indeed, it was a good deal like
+walking on the edge of a knife-blade even as Wentworth had defined it,
+and here it was that two, at any rate, of the party began to feel
+dubious.  On the right was a precipitous fall of rocks, then the steep,
+slippery, grassy slope--broken here and there by a cliff--which
+constituted the whole of that side of the mountain; on the left an
+unbroken drop of seven or eight hundred feet.  And on the apex of this
+rock ridge, in single file, poised, like Mohammed's coffin, between the
+heavens and the earth, the aspiring party had to walk or crawl.
+
+"Well, Miss Wyatt, how do you feel now?" said Wentworth, who was leading
+the way.  Alma was immediately behind him, then came Philip Orlebar,
+then Fordham, Scott and Gedge bringing up the rear.  "Not giddy at all,
+I hope?"
+
+"Not in the very least," said Alma, brightly.  "Quite sure?  I can give
+you a hand if you like."
+
+"Not for the world.  I assure you I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  And what
+a view!"
+
+"Well, look carefully where you're going," continued Wentworth.  "Leave
+the view to take care of itself until you get to the top.  It won't run
+away."
+
+That the warning was by no means superfluous was shown by a sudden
+stagger on the part of Philip.  He reeled for a moment, then, with a
+great effort, recovered his balance.  He had been so absorbed in
+watching Alma's progress in front, that he had quite neglected the
+attention due to his own footing.  Now this cannot be done with impunity
+upon the edge of a knife-like ridge about one thousand feet in mid-air--
+as he learned when he found himself within an ace of plunging into
+space.  Fordham, for a moment, thought he had gone.
+
+"You'll add to the record of this much maligned climb, Phil, if you
+don't mind," he said.  "What's the row?  Feel heady?"
+
+"Not a bit.  Only made a slip.  Sha'n't do it again though.  I say,
+Wentworth, how far would a fellow fall here--on this side?"
+
+"Oh, about eight hundred feet.  Then he'd go footballing two or three
+hundred more," was the nonchalant reply.  "I wouldn't try it, though, if
+I were you."
+
+They were off the _arete_ now, and paused to rest under the rocks to
+allow the others time to come up.
+
+"Hallo, Gedge!" continued Wentworth, as the addressed came crawling
+along on all-fours, and that very gingerly.  "I thought you felt like
+doing this climb on one leg, and instead of that it seems to take you
+all four."
+
+"You people go on at such a rate.  Besides, I find I'm not up to much on
+a place like this.  No, I'll climb down from the `one-leg' position,
+absolutely and unreservedly."
+
+"There's another man who isn't up to much on a place like this," said
+Fordham, with a dry chuckle.
+
+Scott, to whom this remark referred, had nearly reached the middle of
+the _arete_.  He, too, was creeping on hands and knees.  But suddenly
+his heart seemed to fail him, for there he sat, straddling the ridge,
+one leg on each side of the mountain, the very picture of wild panic.
+His hat had blown off, and hung by a string over his shoulder, and he
+dared not move a finger to replace it.  His hands shook as he grasped
+the rock in a strained, terror-stricken grasp, and his eyes seemed to
+start from his deadly white face.
+
+"Oh, help me off!" he cried piteously.  "For Heaven's sake, some of you
+help me off!"
+
+In vain they called out to him that he was perfectly safe--that if Miss
+Wyatt could get along the place without any difficulty surely he could.
+The poor man's reasoning faculties seemed to have deserted him
+altogether.
+
+"I suppose I must go back and salvage him!" said Wentworth, resignedly.
+"You had better wait here for me, though."  And in a moment he was
+beside the distressed chaplain.
+
+"Hang it all, Mr Scott!" he said in an undertone, "do remember what an
+exhibition you are making of yourself before Miss Wyatt, and pull
+yourself together.  You're quite safe, I tell you.  Now, turn round--
+carefully as you like--and then crawl back again as you came."
+
+When a man of Scott's calibre is in a horrible funk, poised a thousand
+feet in mid-air, appeals to his reason or his sense of shame are apt to
+fall alike on deaf ears.  To all Wentworth's adjurations he only
+reiterated piteously, "I can't move!  What is to be done?  I can't
+move!"
+
+What, indeed, was to be done?  It was a position in which if a man will
+not help himself nobody can help him.  Wentworth was in despair.
+Suddenly a happy thought struck him.  His flask!
+
+"Here, take a nip of this and pull yourself together.  That's right," as
+Scott eagerly seized the proffered refreshment.
+
+And soon the effects were felt.  A liberal gulp or two having infused
+into his system a faint modicum of that artificial courage libellously
+termed "Dutch," the panic-stricken cleric managed to turn round upon his
+aerial perch, and began to crawl gingerly back in the same ignominious
+posture as that in which he had come, stipulating eagerly that his
+succourer should keep just behind him in order to grab hold of him if he
+should show the least sign of falling.  Wentworth was glad to get rid of
+him on any terms, and, depositing him in safety under a rock, solemnly
+enjoined upon him not to move therefrom until they should return.
+
+"Well, Mr Fordham," said Alma, wickedly, "we poor women are not always
+the ones who give the most trouble, you see."
+
+"No, by Jove, you're not, Miss Wyatt," struck in Gedge,
+characteristically eager to answer for everybody.  "What an awful fool I
+must have looked myself.  I'll do the next _arete_ on my hind legs like
+the rest of you."  And he was as good as his word.
+
+Two more of these narrow rock-ridges, overhanging a dizzy height, then a
+particularly awkward "corner" where a very slight excrescence of the
+rock constituted the only foothold, and where Wentworth and Philip's
+combined caution availed to render the danger for Alma practically
+_nil_, and they began the steep but easy climb of the grassy cone
+itself.  A few minutes later they stood on the summit.
+
+"Well, Miss Wyatt, I must in all due sincerity congratulate you," said
+Wentworth, as they sat down to rest after their exertions.  "No one
+could have got along better than you have done.  And you have never
+climbed a mountain before?"
+
+"Never.  Why, I've never even seen a mountain before I came to this
+country a couple of weeks ago," answered Alma, with a gratified smile.
+
+"Wonderful I wonderful!  Isn't it, Fordham?"
+
+"Very," replied that worthy, drily.
+
+"No chance of any one holding too good an opinion of herself when Mr
+Fordham is by," said Alma, with mischievous emphasis on the "her."
+
+"Which is to say that everything--everybody, rather--is of some use,"
+was the ready rejoinder.
+
+"I don't see the point of that at all," cried Phil, dimly conscious that
+his deity was being made the butt of his crusty friend's satire.  "No, I
+don't.  Come now, Fordham."
+
+"I suppose not.  There is another point you don't see either, which is
+that when a man has taken the trouble to shin up the Cape au Moine on a
+particularly hot and surpassingly clear day, he prefers the enjoyment of
+the magnificent view which a bountiful Providence has spread around him
+to the labour of driving this or that `point' into the somewhat opaque
+brain-box of Philip Orlebar, Esq."
+
+"You had better take that as final, Mr Orlebar, ere worse befall you,"
+laughed!  Alma, interrupting the derisive hoot wherewith her adorer had
+greeted the above contemptuous speech.  "And Mr Fordham's principle is
+a sound one in the main, for I never could have imagined the world could
+show anything so glorious, so perfectly heavenly as this view.  Let us
+make the most of it."
+
+Her enthusiasm was not feigned, and for it there was every
+justification.  The atmosphere balmy and clear, the lofty elevation at
+which they found themselves--these alone were enough to engender an
+unbounded sense of exhilaration.  But what a panorama!  Range upon range
+of noble mountains, the dazzling snow-summits of the giants of the
+Oberland reaching in a stately line across the whole eastern background
+of the picture, from the cloud-like Wetterhorn to the massive rock
+rampart of the Diablerets.  Mountains, mountains everywhere--one vast
+rolling sea of tossing peaks, rock-ridges, and smooth, hump-like backs;
+of bold and sweeping slopes, here black with pine forest, there vividly
+green in the full blaze of unclouded sunlight; and, cleaving the heart
+of the billowy expanse, such a maze of sequestered and peaceful valleys
+resonant with the far-away music of cow-bells, at eventide sweet with
+the melodious _jodel_ of the _Ranz des Vaches_.  In the distance the
+turbid Sarine winding its way by more than one cluster of red roofs
+grouping around a modest steeple on its banks.  This on the one hand.
+On the other, the rolling, wooded champaign and rich pasture-lands of
+the plain of Switzerland stretching away to the lakes of Neuchatel and
+Bienne, and historic Morat; and below, like a huge turquoise, the blue
+Lake Leman in its mountain-girt setting, between the far-away line of
+the purple Jura and the great masses of the Savoy Alps rearing up
+opposite.  What a panorama, beneath a sky of deep and unclouded blue,
+lighted by the golden radiance of a summer sun!  It was indeed something
+to make the most of--to store up within the treasure-house of the
+memory.
+
+Seated upon the rank grass which carpeted the windswept summit of the
+narrow pinnacle, Alma was making Wentworth tell her the names of the sea
+of peaks, far and near, which lay around them.  This he was well
+qualified to do, knowing them as he did by heart, and for nearly an hour
+the object lesson went on.  Fordham lay on the grass, smoking a pipe, in
+an attitude of the most perfect repose, and the irrepressible Gedge was
+bearing his part in a bawled colloquy between himself and those they had
+left to await their return.  Neither heard what the other said, but this
+was a secondary consideration.  The great thing was to be saying
+something--anyhow as far as the volatile Gedge was concerned.
+
+"It isn't the snow mountains that are responsible for the greatest
+number of smashes," said Wentworth, having pointed out two or three
+peaks which, like the one they were on, were responsible for having
+killed somebody.  "The grass peaks like this are far the worst.  It's
+this way.  A fellow makes up his mind to do a regular climb--say the
+Matterhorn or the Jungfrau.  All right.  He makes up his mind that he's
+going to do a big thing, and from start to finish he's keenly on the
+look out.  Besides, he has guides, who won't allow him to take any risk.
+Now, on a thing like this, that you can just hop up and down again
+between the two _table d'hotes_, why he thinks he is going to do it on
+one leg, like friend Gedge there."
+
+"Well, but--Wentworth--you don't call this a small thing?" struck in he
+named.  "The confounded--what d'you call 'em?--_aretes_ require a pretty
+strong head."
+
+"Yes, that's so.  This is, perhaps, a little more difficult than some of
+the other climbs that break fellows' necks.  Take the old Jaman, for
+instance.  You could almost ride a mule up and down it.  Anyhow, the
+path, with ordinary care, is as safe as a church.  But some day the
+know-everything Briton spots a rather fine gentian growing just off the
+path.  Quite easy, of course.  But he soon finds all the difference in
+the world between the path and the mountain-side.  The grass is as
+slippery as ice, especially if it is a little wet.  His feet slide from
+under him and away he goes.  A toboggan's nothing to it.  He shoots down
+the grass slope like a streak of lightning, then over the inevitable
+cliff--and--a sack of bones is brought back to the hotel, and a
+paragraph goes the round of the English papers, headed `Another Alpine
+Accident.'  Thus a mountain gets the name of being a dangerous one,
+whereas really it is a mere idiot-trap, sensible people being perfectly
+safe on it--in ordinarily decent weather, that is."
+
+"Horrible!" said Alma, with a little shiver.  "And at this height it all
+seems to come home to one so."
+
+"I say, Wentworth," said Phil, "you'd better keep those bogey
+disquisitions of yours until we get down.  You will spoil Miss Wyatt's
+nerve for the _aretes_ going back."
+
+"Not at all," said Alma.  "I am very much interested.  Tell me, Mr
+Wentworth, don't people often come to grief by climbing down places that
+look easier than they are?"
+
+"Of course they do.  You notice, from below, a bit of rock that looks as
+if you could sit on it and then have your feet on the ground, but when
+you get to it it's a cliff fifty or sixty feet high.  But I've taken the
+trouble to go into the cases, and in nine instances out of ten it is the
+little grass fiend that does for its victim, not the eternal snow-capped
+giant."
+
+"Ever come up here in the snow, Wentworth?" said Gedge.
+
+"Yes.  It's dangerous, though--very dangerous indeed.  I don't care
+about doing it again--in winter, I mean, not when there's a mere
+temporary powdering of it.  Of course, you understand, the whole aspect
+of the mountain is changed, every feature as unfamiliar as if it was a
+new thing.  And snow is apt to slide away in great masses, taking you
+with it.  It's bad in wind, too.  I've crossed those _aretes_ when I've
+had to lie flat and grab the rock rather harder than we saw friend Scott
+doing just now.  You have no idea of the force of the wind on a place
+like that."
+
+Fordham and Gedge now started to go down.  Alma, however, begged for a
+little longer time.  She might never see such a view again in her
+lifetime, she urged, and they had still the best part of the day before
+them.  So Wentworth had yielded--that is to say, he had remained behind
+too, ignoring Philip Orlebar's airy hint that _he_ needn't bother to
+wait if he would rather go, for that he--Phil--would undertake to bring
+Miss Wyatt down safely.  But Wentworth, who was a good-natured fellow,
+and whose inclinations in nowise moved him to cut out Master Phil even
+temporarily, was impervious to the latter's wishes now.  He felt himself
+in a measure responsible, and Philip was comparatively inexperienced at
+mountain work.
+
+So they sat and talked on, till suddenly Alma exclaimed, with a shiver--
+
+"Why, the sun is going in.  And look! we are almost in a cloud."
+
+Wentworth, hitherto absorbed in a favourite topic, doubly attractive as
+shared by a new and interested listener, looked quickly round.
+
+"Yes," he said, rising, "we had better go down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+PERIL.
+
+It had stolen upon them like an enemy unawares.
+
+A moment ago they were in a full blaze of noonday radiance, revelling in
+its golden, undimmed splendour; now this had, as by the wave of a magic
+wand, given place to a semi-gloom, chill and depressing in its misty
+suddenness.  A moment ago a panorama as of half a continent lay spread
+around them, now an object the size of a human being was invisible at
+twelve yards.  Creeping up, swift, stealthy, and ghost-like, the cloud
+curtain was wreathing its dank and shadowy folds round the pinnacle-like
+cone of the Cape au Moine, and already imparting a rimy slipperiness to
+the rocks and grass.
+
+"We had better go down," Wentworth had said, unconcernedly.  Heartily
+now he wished they had done so half an hour earlier, for he, in common
+with the rest of them, was sensible of a sudden rising of the wind,
+which, taken with the fact that, so far from dispelling the cloud, it
+only seemed to be rolling it up thicker, pointed to the possibility of a
+gusty squall, the extent and suddenness of whose force it was impossible
+to predict.
+
+The very features of the mountain seemed to have changed.  As they got
+off the grassy cone on to the first _arete_, the summit, dimly visible
+as they looked back, seemed to tower up at least four times its actual
+height, and the vertical line of the great precipice which forms its
+eastern face stood forth black and forbidding against the opaque
+background of vapour.  A pair of crows flapped forth from some rocky
+recess and, uttering a raucous croak, soared away into the misty space.
+The straight, narrow edge of their dizzy path disappeared in the cloud
+not a dozen yards in front.
+
+No one knew better than Wentworth the utterly disconcerting effect of
+this sort of phenomenon upon even the most skilled mountaineer.  Every
+well-known feature or landmark assumes a puzzling unfamiliarity--in
+fact, a complete metamorphosis of the whole scene appears to have taken
+place.  So, with a dubious glance to windward, he remarked--
+
+"It might be our best plan not to attempt the _aretes_ at present.  We
+can get back on to the cone and wait until this blows over, in perfect
+safety.  What do you think, Miss Wyatt?"
+
+"Oh, let's try it, if it can be done," she exclaimed, eagerly.  "My
+uncle will be so dreadfully frightened if we wait here.  Only think of
+it.  He will certainly imagine we have come to grief.  No, let's go on;
+I am not in the least afraid."
+
+Wentworth made no further objection, and they resumed their now perilous
+way.  For the wind had gained in strength and volume with alarming
+rapidity, and, balanced there on that knife-like ridge, those three
+adventurous ones were exposed to its full force and fury.  More than
+once they were obliged to take refuge on their hands and knees, and
+indeed were finally reduced to crawling ignominiously thereon.  The
+shrill whistle of the blast tore past their ears, singing through the
+weather-beaten herbage which straggled upon the side of the _arete_.
+The mist swirled over the crest of the ridge in rimy puffs, and below,
+whenever they snatched half a glance from their precarious progress, the
+climbers could note a seething, whirling chaos of vapour filling up the
+great hollow whose bottom lay at a dizzy depth beneath.
+
+"Not much further to go, is there?" said Philip, anxiously, as they
+stood resting beneath the rocks at the end of the second _arete_ from
+the summit.  It had devolved upon Wentworth as guide to help Alma down
+the steeper and more dangerous places, even to the placing of her feet;
+but this Philip had quite ceased to secretly resent.  He himself was as
+bewildered as a child in this unaccustomed cloud-land.
+
+"Not so very much," answered Wentworth, ambiguously and in fact somewhat
+absently, for often as he had been there before, the cloud had
+disconcerted him more than he chose to admit, and he was thinking
+whether it would not really be rank lunacy to resume their attempt.  But
+a slight shiver of cold on Alma's part decided him.
+
+"Had enough rest, Miss Wyatt?" he said.  "Come along, then.  We must not
+lose any time."
+
+He stepped forth from their resting-place.  The shrieking fury of the
+wind had become almost a gale.  This _arete_ was the worst of all, for
+whereas the path on the others ran here and there along the face of the
+slope, thus partially shielding them from the full force of the blast,
+here they would have to crawl along the very crest itself.
+
+"It seems to be blowing harder than ever!" said Wentworth, imprudently
+standing upright upon the sharp ridge.
+
+A perfect roar drowned his words.  As though struck by some unseen power
+he staggered, made a frantic attempt to regain a recumbent posture, then
+clutching wildly at the ground he disappeared into space; while the
+horrified spectators who had not yet left their shelter, blown flat
+against the rock by the incredible force of the sudden gust, realised
+that but for this providential rampart they too would have met with the
+same fate.
+
+For many minutes they gazed at each other in silence, too unnerved, too
+horror-stricken to speak.  And that they were so is little to be
+wondered at.  They had just seen their companion blown into the abyss
+within a few paces of them.  At that very moment they pictured him lying
+far, far down where the boiling vapours swirled blackly through space--
+lying in scattered, mangled fragments, poor relics of the strong,
+cool-headed man who but a moment ago was guiding them with such skill
+and judgment.  And their own position was sufficiently alarming.  Here
+they were, up in the clouds, exposed to the force and fury of a mountain
+storm whose duration it was impossible to pre-estimate.
+
+"How awful?" gasped Alma, at length, during a lull in the bellowing of
+the gale.  "How truly awful!  Is--is there no chance for him?"
+
+Philip shook his head gloomily, and there was a shudder in his voice.
+"Not a shadow of a chance, I'm afraid.  You saw, as we came along, the
+sort of drop there is on that side.  But--try not to think of it."
+
+"I cannot help thinking of it.  Oh, it is too frightful!" and,
+thoroughly unnerved, she burst into a wild storm of tears.
+
+It was too much for Philip.  Not there on that lonely mountain height,
+enveloped in the black darkness of the cloud, witnessing her distress,
+her only protector, could he any longer restrain the tenderness which
+took possession of him with every glance from her eyes, every tone of
+her voice.
+
+"Alma--darling"--he broke forth--"think only of yourself now.  Keep up
+your spirits like your own brave self.  Look.  It may not last long, and
+once the wind drops we shall have no difficulty in finding the way."
+
+His words of consolation--no less than those of love which had been
+drawn from him involuntarily as it were--seemed to fall on deaf ears.
+The shock of the horrible fate which had overtaken poor Wentworth before
+their very eyes was too overwhelming, and she continued to weep
+unrestrainedly, almost hysterically.  The black peaty turf of the narrow
+space where they rested had grown wet and slippery, for it was beginning
+to rain, and overhead the grey crags loomed athwart the flying misty
+scud, breaking it up into long fantastic wreaths and streamers, where it
+swirled past the cloven and jagged facets of the rock.
+
+"What are you doing?--No; I will not have that!" said Alma presently,
+resisting an attempt on his part to button around her shoulders his
+coat, which he had taken off for the purpose.
+
+"You must have it.  I saw you shiver," he answered decisively, at the
+same time holding the garment around her in such wise as to make the
+very most of its warming powers.
+
+"I will not.  I am more warmly clad than you are.  You will catch your
+death of cold yourself."
+
+"Now, it's of no use arguing--you must have it.  I have a will of my own
+sometimes, and I'll fling the coat over the cliff rather than wear it
+myself.  It is cold, as you say," he added, with a violent shiver, "but
+I'm not made of sugar."
+
+It was cold indeed.  The wind blew chill and piercing, and the rain,
+which was driving in upon them in a sleety penetrating shower, began to
+render things more and more uncomfortable for poor Phil in his
+shirtsleeves.  And yet amid the cold and the wet, weatherbound up there
+in that weird noonday night, with the horror of a comrade's fate still
+upon him--fear, uncertainty, and danger around them, Philip Orlebar was,
+strange to say, uncontrollably, blissfully happy.  Stranger still, it
+might be that the day would come when he should look back to that period
+of doubt and horror spent in the semi-darkness of the mountain storm,
+and the fury of its icy blasts around their shelterless heads, with the
+same sad, aching hopelessness wherewith a lost soul might look upon the
+paradise it has forfeited by its own act.
+
+The time went by--he standing before her in order that she might benefit
+by even that slight barrier from the force of the wind--talking ever, in
+order to keep up her spirits, to keep her mind from dwelling upon the
+horror they had both witnessed; but for which event, indeed, it is
+probable that he would have spoken all that was on his mind there and
+then.  Even he, however, recognised that this was no time for anything
+of the kind; and indeed, in the fearless protectiveness of his
+demeanour, the tact and fixity of purpose wherewith he strove to take
+her out of herself, no one would have recognised the thoughtless,
+devil-may-care, and, truth to tell, somewhat selfish temperament of
+Philip Orlebar.  His whole nature seemed transformed.  He seemed a dozen
+years older.  But the love tremor in his voice spoke the high pressure
+of restraint he had put upon himself.  Did Alma detect it?  We cannot
+say.
+
+A faint halloo came through the opaque folds of the mist--then another
+much nearer.  At the same time they realised that the force of the wind
+had materially abated; moreover it seemed to be getting much lighter.
+
+"That's Fordham," said Philip, with a start.  Then he answered the
+shout.
+
+"Is Miss Wyatt all right?" sung out Fordham.
+
+"Safe as a church," roared Philip, and the welcome news was passed on to
+those waiting further back.
+
+A ray of sunlight shot through the gloom, and lo, as if by magic, the
+opaque inky wall thus breached began to fall asunder, yielding before
+each successive piercing ray, and the patch of blue sky thus opened
+spread wider and wider till the whole of the _arete_ lay revealed, wet
+and glistening in the sunshine, and beyond the gleaming crags the
+cloudcap around the apex of the cone grew smaller and beautifully less
+until it was whirled away altogether.
+
+"Where's Wentworth?" was Fordham's first query on joining them.  Philip
+looked very blank.
+
+"Come this way, Fordham," he said, leading the other to the spot, not
+many paces distant, where the unfortunate man had disappeared.  "Look at
+that.  What sort of a chance would a fellow have who went over there?"
+
+Fordham looked at the speaker with a start of dismay, then at the line
+where the abrupt slope of the ridge broke into sheer precipice half a
+dozen yards below.
+
+"I'm afraid he wouldn't have the ghost of a shadow of a chance," he
+muttered.  "But--how was it?"
+
+"Blown over," answered Philip.
+
+"The devil!"
+
+Both men stood gazing down in gloomy silence.  The strength of the wind
+was still a trifle too powerful to be pleasant up there on the _arete_;
+but below, sheltered from its force, the whole vast depth of the valley
+was filled with a sea of snowy vapour, slowly heaving itself up into
+round billowy humps.
+
+"By Jove!  Did you hear that?" suddenly exclaimed Philip, with a start
+that nearly sent him to share the fate of the luckless Wentworth.
+
+"Yes, I did," was the hardly less eager reply.  "But--it isn't possible.
+Wait--now--listen again!"
+
+A faint and far-away shout from below now rose distinctly to their ears.
+Both listened with an intensity of eagerness that was painful.
+
+"Only some native, herding cattle down there!" said Philip,
+despondently.
+
+"Shut up, man, and listen again.  Cattle-herds in this canton don't as a
+rule talk good English," interrupted Fordham.  "Ah!  I thought so," he
+added, as this time the voice was distinctly audible--articulating,
+though somewhat feebly--"Any one up there?"
+
+"Yes.  Where are you?"
+
+"About forty feet down.  Get a rope quick.  I can't hold on for ever."
+
+"Now, Phil," said Fordham, quickly, "you're younger than I am, and
+you've got longer legs.  So just cut away down to the Chalet Soladier,
+that one we passed coming up, and levy upon them for all the ropes on
+the premises.  Wait--be careful though," he added, as the other was
+already starting.  "Don't hurry too much until you're clear of the
+_aretes_, or you may miss your own footing.  After that, as hard as you
+like."
+
+Away went Philip; Alma, her nerves in a state of the wildest excitement,
+dividing her attention between following with her eyes his dangerous
+course along the knife-like ridges, and listening to the dialogue
+between Fordham and Wentworth.  The latter's fall, it transpired, had
+fortunately been arrested by a growth of rhododendron bushes, anchored
+in the very face of the cliff.  He had no footing to speak of, he said,
+and dared not even trust all his weight upon so precarious a hold as the
+roots of a bush or two, especially where there could be but the most
+insignificant depth of soil.  He was distributing his weight as much as
+possible, upon such slight slope as this bushy projection afforded;
+indeed, so constrained was his position that he could not even give free
+play to his voice, hence the faint and far-away sound of his first hail.
+He hoped the rope would not be long coming, he added, for the bushes
+might give way at any moment; moreover he himself was becoming somewhat
+played out.
+
+Alma felt every drop of blood curdle within her as she listened to this
+voice out of the abyss, and pictured to herself its owner hanging there
+by a few twigs, with hardly a foothold, however slight, between himself
+and hundreds of feet of grisly death.  Even Fordham felt sick at heart
+as he realised the frightful suspense of the situation.
+
+"Keep up your nerve, Wentworth," he shouted.  "Phil has nearly reached
+the _chalet_ now.  They can be here in half an hour."
+
+"He is there now," said Alma, who was watching every step of his
+progress through his own glasses which he had left up there.  "And the
+man is all ready for him--and--yes--he is meeting him with ropes.  Now
+they are starting.  Thank Heaven for that!"
+
+Fortunate indeed was it for Wentworth that the _chalet_ was inhabited at
+that time of year, and that its occupier happened to be there that day.
+The latter, who had watched the ascent, and had seen some of the party
+on the cone just before the cloud had hidden everything, was a trifle
+uneasy himself.  But the sight of a tall athletic young Englishman
+tearing down the slope in his shirtsleeves confirmed his fears.  He put
+two and two together, and, being a quick-witted fellow, had started to
+meet Philip with all the ropes his establishment could muster.
+
+All this was shouted down to Wentworth for the encouragement of the
+latter.  And the excitement of those on the _arete_, no less than that
+of the party left behind on the high _col_, became more and more intense
+as they watched the distance diminish between them and the bearers of
+the needful ropes, upon which depended a fellow-creature's life.
+Minutes seemed hours.  But what must they have seemed to the man who
+hung there over that dizzy height--his strength ebbing fast--counting
+the very seconds to the time his rescue should begin!
+
+By the time Philip and the cowherd had joined him, together with Gedge,
+who had come to render what help he could, Fordham's plan was laid.
+They could not all stand on the narrow _arete_ in such wise as to obtain
+anything like the requisite purchase on the rope.  But on the other side
+of the ridge a precipitous fall of rock, some ten or twelve feet, ended
+in an abrupt grass slope.  Here two of them could stand, holding the end
+of the rope, while two more on the apex of the ridge could direct the
+ascent of the rescued man as well as assist in hauling.
+
+"Now, Phil," he said, "if you've quite got back your wind"--for the two
+men were somewhat out of breath with their rapid climb--"get away down
+there with Gedge, and hold on like grim death.  No, Miss Wyatt, not
+you," in response to an appeal on Alma's part to be allowed to help.
+"Four of us will be enough.  We can manage easily."
+
+There were two good lengths of rope, each about forty feet--for the
+peasants in mountain localities frequently adopt the precaution of tying
+themselves together when mowing the grass on some of the more dangerous
+and precipitous slopes.  These were securely knotted together and manned
+as aforesaid.
+
+"I don't like knots," muttered Fordham, as he let down the end, having
+first tied his flask to the same with a bit of twine the stopper being
+loosened so as to render the contents accessible without an effort--"I
+don't like knots, but there's no help for it.  Now, Wentworth," he
+shouted, "is that right?"
+
+"Little more to the left--about a yard and a half.  There--so.  All
+right.  I've got it.  Pay out a little more line."
+
+"Take a pull at the flask, and then sing out when you're quite ready,"
+bawled Fordham.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes, then:
+
+"Ready.  Haul away," cried Wentworth.
+
+And they did haul away--those on the _arete_ flat on their faces,
+carefully watching the ascent of the rope lest it should be worn through
+by any friction.  In a very short time Wentworth appeared in sight where
+the line of the slope broke into the precipice; a moment more and he was
+beside them in safety.
+
+Then what a stentorian cheer split the echoes of those craggy heights,
+conveying to the rest of the party, waiting in anxious, breathless
+suspense below, that the rescue had been safely effected.  Wentworth
+himself seemed rather dazed, and said but little; nor did it add to his
+composure when he found Alma Wyatt wringing both his hands, and
+ejaculating, "Oh, I am so glad--I am so glad!" preparatory to breaking
+forth into a perfect paroxysm of unnerved crying.
+
+"You've had a narrow squeak, old chap!" said Philip.
+
+"Hurt at all?" asked the more practical Fordham.
+
+"No.  Don't seem like it.  Scratched a bit--nothing more."
+
+His face was badly scratched and covered with blood.  One sleeve of his
+coat was nearly torn from the shoulder, and he had lost his watch.
+
+"_Vous vous y-etes joliment tire--Nom de nom_!" said the cowherd
+oracularly.  "_Remplacer une montre c'est plus simple que de remplacer
+ses membres broyes--allez_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+LIGHT.
+
+"Wentworth, old man, here's to your lucky escape," cried Gedge, with his
+usual effusiveness, flourishing a brimming bumper of Beaune.
+
+A roaring fire blazed in the wide chimney-place of the Chalet Soladier.
+The air was raw and chill, for another rain-gust had swept suddenly up;
+and seated around the cheerful glow our party was engaged in the
+comfortable and highly congenial occupation of assimilating the luncheon
+which had been brought along.
+
+"That's a most appropriate toast, and one we ought all to join in," said
+the old General, approvingly.  "Here, Philip, give the _chalet_ man a
+full bumper.  He is entitled to join if any one is, and, Alma--explain
+to him what it is all about."
+
+This was done, and the toast drunk with a hearty cheer.  The recipient
+of the honour, however, was in no responsive mood.  That he, of all
+people, should have been fool enough to miss his footing; he an
+experienced climber, and who, moreover, was in a way the leader of the
+expedition!  It was intolerable.  And this aspect of the situation
+tended far more towards the somewhat silent and subdued demeanour he had
+worn ever since, than any recollection of the ghastly peril from which
+he had been extricated, than even the thought of the grisly death from
+which he had been saved almost by a miracle.  Yes, he felt small, and
+said so unreservedly.
+
+But Alma came to the rescue in no ambiguous fashion.
+
+"You are not fair to yourself, Mr Wentworth," she declared.  "The thing
+might have happened to anybody up there in that awful wind.  Of course I
+don't know anything about mountain climbing, but what strikes me is that
+if, as you say, you considered yourself in a way responsible for us, the
+fact that you incurred the danger, while we have all come down safe and
+sound--incurred it, too, out of care for our safety--is not a thing to
+feel small about, but very much the reverse."
+
+"Hear, hear!" sung out Gedge, lustily, stamping with his feet in such
+wise as to upset a whole heap of sandwiches and the residue of Fordham's
+beverage.  But Wentworth shook his head.
+
+"It's very kind of you to put it that way, Miss Wyatt.  Still the fact
+remains that it oughtn't to have happened; and perhaps the best side of
+the affair is that it happened to me after all, and not to one of
+yourselves.  By Jove! though," he added, with a laugh.  "Friend Dufour
+will score off me now for all time.  We are always having arguments
+about the Cape au Moine.  I always say it is an over-rated climb, and
+for the matter of that I say so still."
+
+"That may easily be," struck in Philip.  "I suppose any mountain is
+dangerous with a gale of five hundred hurricane power blowing."
+
+"Of course.  But where I blame myself, Orlebar, is in not starting to
+come down sooner.  And I fancy that is the line Miss Wyatt's advocacy
+will take when she finds herself laid up with a bad cold after getting
+wet through up there."
+
+"It will take nothing of the kind, Mr Wentworth," replied Alma, "for I
+am not going to be laid up with any cold at all.  The walk down here
+almost dried my things, and this splendid fire has done the rest."
+
+Luncheon over pipes were produced, indeed the suggestion to that effect
+originated with the representatives of the softer sex there present, who
+preferred the, at other times much-decried, narcotic to the somewhat
+rancid odour emanating from sundry tubs used in cheese-making, which
+stood in the corner of the room.  The rain beat hard upon the roof
+without, but nothing could have been more snug than the interior of the
+_chalet_ in its semi-darkness, the firelight dancing upon the beams and
+quaint appointments of this rough but picturesque habitation.
+
+"Now, Gedge, you're by way of being a logician," said Wentworth, blowing
+out a cloud of smoke.  "Can you tell us why a man can't keep his head
+just as well over a drop of a thousand feet as over one of six?"
+
+"_Do_ you mean when the wind is blowing," answered Gedge, suspecting a
+"catch."
+
+"No.  I mean when there's no apparent reason why he shouldn't."
+
+"Because he gets confoundedly dizzy, I suppose."
+
+"But why should he?  He has the same foothold.  Take that _arete_ up
+there.  If the drop on each side were only six feet, no fellow would
+hesitate to run along it like a cat along a wall."
+
+"Not even Scott," muttered Fordham, in a tone just audible to Alma, who
+at the picture thus conjured up of the unfortunate chaplain straddling
+the _arete_, and screaming to be taken off, could hardly restrain
+herself from breaking forth into a peal of laughter.
+
+"It's a clear case of the triumph of mind over matter, I take it,"
+answered Gedge.  "What do you say, Scott?"
+
+"Oh, I'm no authority," mumbled the latter hastily.  "Don't appeal to
+me.  My head seems going round still."
+
+"Scott is no authority on matters outside the smoking-room," said
+Fordham, mercilessly--thereby nearly causing Alma to choke again, and
+begetting inextinguishable resentment in the breast of the youngest Miss
+Ottley, who had taken the parson under her own especial wing.  "Within
+those sacred precincts we all bow to him as supreme."
+
+"I don't quite see where that comes in," rejoined Wentworth, in answer
+to Gedge.  "If anything it would be the other way about--triumph of
+matter over mind: the matter being represented by several hundred feet
+of perpendicularity, before, or rather above, which the `mind' takes a
+back seat; or, in plainer English, gets in a funk."
+
+"That very fact proves the mind to be paramount; proves its triumph,
+paradoxical as it may sound," argued Gedge.  "An idiot, for instance,
+wouldn't care twopence whether the drop was six feet or six hundred.  As
+long as there was firm ground under him, he'd shuffle along it gaily.
+Why?  Because he is incapable of thought--deficient in mind."
+
+"Upon that showing," said General Wyatt, with a twinkle in his
+eye--"upon that showing, the Miss Ottleys and myself must be the most
+sensible people of the lot; for, unlike your hypothetical idiot, Gedge,
+we emphatically did care twopence whether the drop was six feet or six
+hundred.  In other words, we funked it egregiously and stayed behind.
+Our minds, you see triumphed over matter in the most practical way of
+all."
+
+"I guess this argument's going to end in a clean draw," said Philip.
+"Hallo! the sun's out again, and, by Jove, there isn't a cloud in the
+sky," he added, flinging the door open and going outside.  "The day is
+young yet.  How would it be to go over the Col de Falvay and work round
+home again by way of the Alliaz?  It's a lovely walk."
+
+But this, after some discussion, was voted too large an undertaking.  At
+Alma's suggestion it was decided that the party should stroll over the
+_col_ into the next valley and pick flowers.
+
+"It is our last day here, uncle," she urged, in answer to the old
+General's somewhat half-hearted objection that they would have had about
+enough walking by the time they reached home.  "It is our last day, so
+we ought to make the most of it.  And look how lovely it has turned
+out!"
+
+It had.  No sign was left now of the dour mist curtain which had swept
+the heavens but a short while before.  Wandering in the golden sunshine,
+among fragrant pine woods and pastures, knee-deep in narcissus, the
+party soon split up as such parties will.  Fordham and the General took
+it very easily; strolling a little, sitting down a little, they chatted
+and smoked many pipes, and were happy.  Scott and his fair admirer
+paired off in search of floral and botanical specimens, and were also
+happy.  The residue of the crowd assimilated themselves in like
+harmonious fashion, or did not--as they chose.  Two units of it at any
+rate did, for crafty Phil seized an early opportunity of carrying off
+Alma to a spot where he knew they would find lilies of the valley.  As a
+matter of fact they did not find any, but this was of no consequence to
+him.  What was of consequence was the blissful fact that he had got her
+all to himself for the afternoon.  And this was her last afternoon,
+their last afternoon together.  And in consideration of this, the
+light-hearted, easy-going Phil became seized with an abnormal
+melancholy.
+
+"You are a rank deceiver," said Alma, some three hours later, as, in
+obedience to a shout of recall, they turned to rejoin the rest of the
+party now taking the homeward way, but as yet some distance off.  "You
+told me you knew we should find the lilies there--you _knew_, mind, not
+you _thought_.  Then when we found none at the first place, you knew we
+should at another; and you dragged me from place to place, but yet I
+haven't found one.  And now I must be content with the bundle of
+bell-gentians I gathered this morning.  Poor things! how they have
+faded," she added, undoing a corner of the handkerchief containing them.
+"Ah! here is some water.  I must freshen them up a bit."
+
+"What a day this has been," said Philip, regretfully, as Alma stooped
+down to freshen the gentians with water from the tiny runnel which,
+dripping from the mossy undergrowth beneath the shadowy pines, sped at
+their feet with a bell-like tinkle.  There was a moist fragrance as of
+crushed blossoms in the air, and the unearthly glow of a cloudless
+evening was upon the sunlit slopes, and the grey solemn faces of the
+cliffs across the valley.
+
+"Yes, indeed," she answered, her wet, tapering hands plunged lightly
+among the rich blue blossoms of the bell-gentians.
+
+"And it is your last!"
+
+"Unfortunately it is.  But--who would have thought, to look around now--
+who would have believed the awful time we went through up there only
+this morning!  When Mr Wentworth was drawn up again safe and unhurt, I
+could not help crying for joy.  Poor fellow!  What must he have gone
+through all that time, with nothing but a rhododendron bush between him
+and a frightful death!"
+
+"I reverse the usual order and begin to think I'd rather it was me than
+him," said Philip, gruffly.  "May I ask whether, in that case, you would
+have manifested the same delight?"
+
+There was a flash of mischievous mirth in Alma's great grey eyes as she
+looked up at him.
+
+"You foolish boy!  I sha'n't answer that question.  But, if you had been
+down there, how could you have taken such splendid care of me?"
+
+"Oh, I did take care of you then?" he said quickly.  "You did, indeed."
+
+"Let me take care of you for life then, Alma."  Just those few words,
+curt even to lameness.  But there was a very volume of pent-up feeling
+in their tone as he stood there, his face a trifle paler, his fine frame
+outlined against the black background of the pines, his eyes dilated and
+fixed upon hers, as though to read there his answer.
+
+She started.  Her face flushed, then grew pale again.  Released by the
+tremor of her hand, another corner of the handkerchief fell, and the
+bell-gentians poured down into her lap and on the ground.  She did not
+answer immediately, and a troubled look came over her face.  Yet the
+question could not have been such a surprising one.  Reading every
+changing expression of the lovely face eagerly, hungrily, Philip
+continued, and there was a quaver of forestalled despair in his voice.
+
+"Not to be--is it?" with a ghastly attempt at a laugh.  "I'm a
+presumptuous idiot, and had better go my way rejoicing--especially
+rejoicing.  Isn't that it?"
+
+But a radiantly killing smile was the answer now, scattering his
+despondency as the sun-ray had dispelled the dark storm-cloud which had
+overshadowed them up there on the _arete_.
+
+"You are in a great hurry to answer your own question," she said.
+"Doesn't it strike you that I am the right person to do that--Phil?"
+
+The very tone was a caress.  The half-timid, half-mischievous way in
+which his Christian name--abbreviated too--escaped her was maddening,
+entrancing.  Hardly knowing what he said in his incoherent transport of
+delight, he cast himself upon the bank beside her, regardless of
+bristling pine needles and the outpost prowlers of a large nest of red
+ants hard by.  But Alma was not yet prepared to allow herself to be
+taken by storm in any such impetuous fashion.
+
+"Now wait a minute, you supremely foolish creature," holding up a hand
+warningly as he flung himself at her side--and her face flushed again;
+but there was a sunny light in her eyes, and a very sweet smile playing
+around her lips.  "What I was going to say is this.  You can't decide
+any important question out of hand.  It requires talking over--and--
+thinking over."
+
+"You darling! you tantalising enchantress!" he cried passionately.  "Let
+us talk over it then, as much as you like.  As for thinking over it--
+why, we've done enough of that already."
+
+"_You_ have, you mean," she corrected, archly.  "Never mind.  But--now
+listen, Phil.  You think you are very, very fond of my unworthy self.
+Wait--don't interrupt," as the expression "you think" brought to his
+lips an indignant protest.  "Yet you hardly know me."
+
+"I know you to be perfection," he broke in hotly.
+
+"That's foolish," she rejoined, but with a by no means displeased smile.
+"But, I say it again, you hardly know me.  We meet here and see each
+other at our best, where everything is conducive to enjoyment and
+absolute freedom from worry, and then you tell me I am perfection--"
+
+"So you are," he interrupted emphatically.
+
+"Well, we meet under the most favourable circumstances, wherein we show
+at our best.  But that isn't life.  It is a mere idyll.  Life is a far
+more serious thing than that."
+
+"Why, that's just how that fellow Fordham talks," exclaimed Philip,
+aghast.
+
+"Mr Fordham is an extremely sensible man then," she rejoined, with a
+queer smile.  "No.  What I want you to consider is, how do you know I
+could make you happy, only meeting as we do, up here and in this way?
+We must not fall into the fatal error of mistaking a mere summer idyllic
+existence for a sample of stern, hard life."
+
+"Oh, darling! you cannot really care for me if you can reason so coldly,
+so deliberately!" he exclaimed, in piteous consternation.  "I am afraid
+you don't know me yet, if you think me so shallow as all that."
+
+"I do know you, Phil, and I don't think you shallow at all--know you
+better than you think--better, perhaps, than you know yourself," she
+answered, placing her hand upon his, which promptly closed over it in
+emblematical would-be possession of its owner.  "I am a bit of a
+character-student, and I have studied you--among others."
+
+"Oh! only among others?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Is that so very derogatory?  Well, for your consolation, perhaps my
+study has so far been satisfactory; indeed, we should hardly be talking
+together now as we are had it been otherwise.  Now--what more do you
+want me to say?"
+
+"What more!  Why, of course I want you to say you will give me
+yourself--your own sweet, dear self, Alma, you lovely, teasing,
+tantalising bundle of witchery.  Now, say you will."
+
+"Not now--not here.  In a little more than a month I shall be at home
+again," she answered, with a dash of sadness in her voice, as though the
+prospect of "home, sweet home" were anything but an alluring one.  "Come
+and see me then--if you still care to.  Who knows?  You may have got
+over this--this--fancy--by that time."
+
+"Alma!  You hurt me."  His voice betrayed the ring of real pain as he
+gazed at her with a world of reproach in his eyes.
+
+"Do I?  I don't want to.  But by then you will know your own mind
+better.  Wait--let me have my say.  By that time you will not have seen
+me for a month or more, as we are leaving this to-morrow.  You may have
+more than half forgotten me by then.  `Out of sight,' you know.  I am
+not going to take advantage of your warm, impulsive temperament now, and
+I should like to feel sure of you, Phil--once and for all--if we are to
+be anything to each other.  So I would rather it remained that way."
+
+"You are hurting me, dearest, with this distrust.  At any rate let me
+tell--er, ask--er, speak to your uncle to-night--"
+
+"No.  On that point I am firm," she answered, rising.  "When I am at
+home again I will give you a final answer--if you still want it, that
+is.  Till then--things are as they were."
+
+"Hard lines!" he answered, with a sigh.  "Still, one must be thankful
+for small mercies, I suppose.  But--you will write to me when we are
+apart, will you not, love?"
+
+"I don't know.  I ought not.  Perhaps once or twice, though."
+
+For a moment they stood facing each other in silence, then his arms were
+round her.
+
+"Alma, my dearest life!" he whispered passionately.  "You are very cold
+and calculating, you know.  You have not said one really sweet or loving
+thing to me through all this reasoning.  Now--kiss me!"
+
+She looked into his eyes with a momentary hesitation, and again the
+sweet fair face was tinged with a suffusing flush.  Then she raised her
+lips to his.
+
+"There," she said.  "There--that is the first.  Will it be the last, I
+wonder?  Oh, Phil, I would like to love you--and you are a very lovable
+subject, you know.  There!  Now you must be as happy as the day is long
+until--until--you know when," she added, restraining with an effort the
+thrill of tenderness in her voice.
+
+"And I will be, darling," he cried.  "The memory of this sweet moment
+will soon carry me over one short month.  And you will write to me?"
+
+"Not often--once or twice, perhaps, as I said before.  And now we must
+pick up my gentians, and move on, or the others will be wondering what
+has become of us.  Look; they are waiting for us now, on the _col_," she
+added, as their path emerged from the cover of the friendly pines.
+
+But by the time they gained that eminence--and we may be sure they did
+not hurry themselves--the rest of the party had gone on, and they were
+still alone together.  Alone together in paradise--the air redolent with
+myriad narcissus blossoms, soft, sweet-scented as with the breath of
+Eden--alone together in the falling eve, each vernal slope, each rounded
+spur starting forth in vivid clearness; each soaring peak on fire in the
+westering rays; and afar to the southward, seen from the elevation of
+the path, the great domed summit of Mont Blanc, bathed in a roseate
+flush responsive to the last kisses of the dying sun.  Homeward, alone
+together, amid the fragrant dews exhaling from rich and luscious
+pastures, the music of cow-bells floating upon the hush of evening; then
+a full golden moon sailing on high, above the black and shaggy pines
+hoary with bearded festoons of mossy lichens, throwing a pale network
+upon the sombre woodland path, accentuating the heavy gloom of forest
+depths, ever and anon melodious with the hooting of owls in ghostly
+cadence, resonant with the shrill cry of the pine marten and the faint
+mysterious rustling as of unearthly whispers.  Homeward alone together.
+Ah, Heaven!  Will they ever again know such moments as these?
+
+Never, we trow.  The sweet, subtle, enchanted spell is upon them in all
+its entrancing, its delirious fulness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+SHADOW.
+
+Nearly a week had elapsed since the departure of the Wyatts, and yet,
+contrary to all precedent, the volatile Phil's normal good spirits
+showed no sign of returning.  He was hard hit.
+
+No further opportunity of meeting alone did Alma afford him after that
+one long, glowing evening.  Her manner to him at parting had been very
+kind and sweet; and with a last look into her eyes, and a pressure of
+the hand a good deal more lingering on his part than etiquette demanded,
+let alone justified, the poor fellow was obliged to be contented, for of
+opportunities for taking a more affectionate farewell she would give him
+none.  They would meet again, she said, and he must wait patiently until
+then.  But to him such meeting seemed a very long way off, and meanwhile
+the residue of the bright summer, hitherto so joyously mapped out for
+walking and climbing and fun in general, to which he had been looking
+forward with all the delight of a sound organisation both physical and
+mental, seemed now to represent a flat and dreary hiatus--to be filled
+up as best it might, to be got through as quickly as possible.
+
+Philip Orlebar was hard hit--indeed, very hard hit.  He had never been
+genuinely in love in his life, though nobody had more often fancied
+himself in that parlous state.  But now he was undergoing his first
+sharp attack of the genuine disorder, and the experience was--well,
+somewhat trying.
+
+And the symptoms, like those of hydrophobia, manifested themselves
+diversely.  Genial, sunny-tempered Phil became morose--"surly as a
+chained bulldog developing influenza," as the elastic Gedge tersely put
+it.  He avoided his kind, and evinced a desire for wandering, by his own
+sweet self, into all manner of breakneck places.  More especially did he
+avoid Fordham, whose continually cropping up sarcasms at the expense of
+the sex now ennobled and deified by the production of one Alma Wyatt,
+fairly maddened him.
+
+"Damned cheap kind of cynicism, don't you know," he growled one day.  "I
+wonder you don't drop it, Fordham."  In fact, so confoundedly
+quarrelsome did he wax that it became a source of wonder how Fordham
+stood it so equably, and at last some one said so.  The answer was
+characteristic.
+
+"Look here, Wentworth.  If you were down with fever, and delirious,
+you'd think me a mighty queer chap if I took mortal offence at anything
+you said in the course of your ravings.  Now that poor chap is down with
+the worst kind of fever and delirium.  By and by, when he wakes up and
+convalesces, he'll ask shamefacedly whether he didn't act and talk like
+an awful fool during his delirium.  No.  You can't quarrel with a man
+for being off his nut.  You can only pity him."
+
+On the letter whose receipt had caused him such disquietude but a week
+ago Philip had since bestowed no further thought.  It seemed such a far
+back event--it and the individual whose existence it so inopportunely
+recalled--and withal such an insignificant one.  For beside the
+withdrawal of Alma Wyatt's daily presence, all other ills, past,
+present, and to come, looked incomparably small, and the contemplation
+of them not worth undertaking.
+
+However indulgent might be Fordham with regard to his younger friend's
+disorder, secretly he hugged himself with mirth, and enjoyed the joke
+hugely in his own saturnine fashion as he read off the symptoms.  How
+well he knew them all.  How many and many a one had he seen go through
+them, and live to laugh at his own abject, if helpless, imbecility--to
+laugh in not a few instances with almost as much bitterness as he
+himself might do.  He believed that it was in his power to comfort poor
+Phil, up to a certain point.  As a looker on at the game, and a
+keen-sighted one, he felt pretty sure that Alma Wyatt was far more
+tenderly disposed towards her adorer than the latter dreamed.  But it
+was not in accordance with his principles to do this.  Richard Fordham
+turned matchmaker!  More likely patchmaker! he thought, with a
+diabolical guffaw as the whimsicality of the idea and the jingle thereof
+struck him; for like the proverbial patching of the old garment with the
+new cloth would be the lifelong alliance of his friend with Alma Wyatt--
+or any other woman.  No.  His mission was, if anything, to bring about a
+contrary result, and thus save the guileless Philip from riveting upon
+his yet free limbs the iron fetters of a degrading and fraudulent
+bondage--for such, we grieve to say, was Fordham's definition of the
+estate of holy matrimony.
+
+"Well, Phil," he said, as the latter, returned from a recent and
+solitary climb, tired and listless, took his seat a quarter of an hour
+late at _table d'hote_, "does the world present a more propitious aspect
+from the giddy summit of the Corbex?"
+
+"Oh, hang it, no!  But, I say, Fordham--what a deuced slow crowd there
+is here now.  Just look at that table over there."
+
+"Nine old maids--no, eleven--in a row," said the other, putting up his
+eyeglass.  "Four parsons--poor specimens of the breed, too.  That is to
+say, three old maids and a devil-dodger; then three more ditto and two
+devil-dodgers; finally the balance, with the remaining sky-pilot mixed
+among them somewhere.  Truly an interesting crowd!"
+
+"By Jove, rather!" growled Philip.  "And just look at that infernal
+tailor's boy over there laying down the law."
+
+Following his glance, Fordham beheld a carroty-headed snobling fresh
+from the counter or the cutting-board, who, in all the exuberance of his
+hard-earned holiday and the enterprising spirit which had prompted him
+to enjoy the same among Alpine sublimities in preference to the more
+homely and raffish attractions of shrimp-producing Margate, was
+delivering himself on Church and State, the House of Peers and the
+Constitution in general, with a freedom which left nothing to be
+desired, for the edification of his appreciative neighbours--only they
+didn't look appreciative.  Philip contemplated this natural product of
+an age of progress and the Rights of Man with unconcealed disgust.
+
+"Faugh!  Are we going to be overrun with bounders of that description?"
+he growled.
+
+"Later on we may drop across a sprinkling of the species," said Fordham.
+"Even the Alps are no longer sacred against the invasion of the modern
+Hun."
+
+"Well, it's no longer any fun sticking here, and I'm sick of it," went
+on Phil.
+
+"All right.  Let's adjourn to Zermatt or somewhere, and begin climbing.
+You want shaking up a bit."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+FORDHAM PROVES ACCOMMODATING.
+
+"Dear me--how very disagreeable (sniff-sniff)--how exceedingly
+unpleasant this smoking is?"
+
+The afternoon train was crawling up the Rhone valley, wending its
+leisurely way over the flat and low-lying bottom as though to afford its
+passengers, mostly foreigners, every opportunity of admiring its native
+marsh.  In the corner of a second-class smoking-carriage sat the typical
+British matron whom her feelings had moved to unburden herself as above.
+Beside her, half effaced by her imposing personality, sat her spouse, a
+mild country parson.  A great number of bundles and a great number of
+wraps completed the outfit.
+
+"I must say it is _most_ disagreeable," went on the lady, with renewed
+sniffs.  "And how ill-mannered these foreigners are, smoking in the
+presence of ladies."  This with a dagger-glance at the other two
+occupants of the carriage, who each, with a knapsack on the rack above
+his head and clad in serviceable walking attire, were lounging back on
+the comfortable seats, placidly blowing clouds.
+
+"Hush, my dear!" expostulated the parson.  "It's a smoking-carriage, you
+know.  I told you so before we got in at Martigny.  Why not go into the
+other compartment?  It's quite empty."
+
+It was.  On the Swiss lines the carriages are generally built on
+American principles; you can walk the entire length of them, and indeed
+of the whole train.  They are, however, divided into two compartments,
+the smaller being reserved for the convenience of non-smokers, the other
+way about, as with us.
+
+"No, I shall certainly not take the trouble to move," replied the
+offended matron.  "Smoking-carriage or not, those two men are most
+unmannerly.  Suppose, Augustus, you go over to them and ask them to put
+out their cigars?  Remind them that it is not usual in England to smoke
+in the presence of ladies."
+
+But the Rev Augustus was not quite such a fool as that.
+
+"Not a bit of use, my dear," he said wearily.  "They'd certainly retort
+that we are not in England--probably request us to step into the
+non-smoking compartment."
+
+Fordham, who at the first remonstrance had rapidly signalled his friend
+not to talk and thus betray their nationality, was leaning back enjoying
+the situation thoroughly.
+
+"Que diable allait _elle_ faire dans cette galere?" he murmured, rightly
+judging the other travellers' command of modern languages to be of the
+limited order.  Phil for his part was obliged to put his head out of the
+window in order to laugh undetected.  Meanwhile the aggrieved British
+matron in her corner continued to fume and sniff and inveigh against the
+abominable manners of those foreigners, and otherwise behave after the
+manner of her kind when, by virtue of honouring it with their presence,
+they have taken some continental country under their august wing.  Then
+the crawl of the train settled down to an imperceptible creep as it drew
+nearer and nearer to the old-world and picturesque capital of the
+Valais.
+
+There was whispering between the pair.  Then, in obedience to a conjugal
+mandate, the mild parson diffidently approached our two friends.
+
+"Pardong, mossoor.  Ais-ker-say See-ong?"
+
+The last word came out with a jerk of relief.
+
+"Sion?  I believe it is," replied Fordham, blandly.  "We shall have a
+quarter of an hour to wait, if not longer."
+
+If ever a man looked a thorough fool, it was the first speaker.  The
+faultless and polished English of the reply!  Here had they--his wife
+rather--been abusing these two men in their own tongue and in her
+usually loud key for upwards of half an hour.  He turned red and began
+to stammer.
+
+But the poor man's confusion was by no means shared by his spouse.  That
+imposing matron came bustling across the carriage as if nothing had
+happened.
+
+"Perhaps you can tell us," she said, "which is the best way of getting
+to Evolena?  There is a diligence, is there not?"
+
+Philip, who had all a young man's aversion for a fussy and domineering
+matron, would have returned a very short and evasive reply.  The woman
+had been abusing them like pickpockets all the way, and now had the
+cheek to come and ask for information.  But to Fordham her sublime
+impudence was diverting in the extreme.
+
+"There is a diligence," he answered, "and I should say you'll still be
+in time for it.  But I should strongly recommend you to charter a
+private conveyance.  Coach passengers are apt to beguile the tedium of
+the road with tobacco."
+
+This was said so equably and with such an utter absence of resentment
+that the lady with all her assertiveness was dumbfoundered.  Then,
+glaring at the speaker, she flounced away without a word, though, amid
+the bustle and flurry attendant upon the collecting of wraps and
+bundles, the offenders could catch such jerked-out phrases as
+"Abominable rudeness?"
+
+"Most insulting fellow!" and so forth.
+
+"Great Scott!  What do you think of that for a zoological specimen,
+Phil?" said Fordham, as the train steamed slowly away from the platform
+where their late fellow-passengers still stood bustling around a pile of
+boxes and bundles.  "The harridan deliberately and of her own free will
+gets into a tobacco cart--out of sheer cussedness, in fact, for there
+stands the non-smoker stark empty--and then has the unparalleled face to
+try and boss us out of it.  And there are idiots with whom she would
+have succeeded too."
+
+"Well, you know, it's beastly awkward when a woman keeps on swearing she
+can't stand smoke, even though you know she has no business there.  What
+the deuce are you to do?"
+
+"Politely ask her to step into the next compartment, whose door stands
+yearningly open to receive her.  Even the parson had wit enough to see
+that."
+
+"Yes, that's so.  But, I say, what an infernally slow train this is?"
+
+"This little incident," went on Fordham, "which has served to break the
+monotony of our journey, reminds me of a somewhat similar joke which
+occurred last year on my way back to England.  We fetched Pontarlier
+pretty late at night, and of course had to turn out and undergo the
+Customs ordeal.  Well, I was sharp about the business, and got back into
+my carriage and old corner first.  It was an ordinary compartment--five
+a side--not like this.  Almost immediately after in comes a large and
+assertive female with an eighteen-year-old son, a weedy, unlicked cub as
+ever you saw in your life, and both calmly took the other end seats.
+Now I knew that one of these seats belonged to a Frenchman who was going
+through, so sat snug in my corner waiting to enjoy the fun.  It came in
+the shape of the Frenchman.  Would madame be so kind, but--the seat was
+his?  No, madame would not be so kind--not if she knew it.  Possibly if
+madame had been young and pretty the outraged Gaul might have subsided
+more gracefully, for subside he had to--but her aggressiveness about
+equalled her unattractiveness, which is saying much.  So a wordy war
+ensued, in the course of which the door was banged and the deposed
+traveller shot with more vehemence than grace half-way across the
+compartment, and the train started.  He was mad, I can tell you.
+Instead of his snug corner for the night, there the poor devil was,
+propped up on end, lurching over every time he began to nod.
+
+"Well, we'd finished our feed--we'd got a chicken and some first-rate
+Burgundy on board--and were looking forward to a comfortable smoke.  In
+fact, we'd each got a cigar in our teeth, and the chap who was with me--
+whom we'll call Smith--was in the act of lighting up, when--
+
+"`I object to smoke.  This isn't a smoking-carriage, and I won't have
+it.'
+
+"We looked at the aggressive female, then at each other.  Her right was
+unassailable.  It was not a tobacco cart, but on French lines they are
+not generally too particular.  Still, in the face of that protest we
+were floored.
+
+"Smith was awfully mad.  He cursed like a trooper under his breath--
+swore he'd be even with the harridan yet--and I believed him.
+
+"Some twenty minutes went by in this way, Smith licking his unlit cigar
+and cursing roundly to himself.  Presently she beckoned him over.  He
+had half a mind not to go; however, he went.
+
+"`I don't mind your smoking,' says she--`out of the window.'
+
+"`Oh, thanks,' he says.  `It's rather too cold to stand outside on the
+footboard.  Besides, it's risky.'
+
+"`Well, I mean I don't mind if you have part of the window open.  But I
+can't stand the place full of smoke and no outlet.  And'--she hurries up
+to add--`I hope you won't mind if I draw the curtain over the lamp so
+that my boy can go to sleep.'
+
+"Smith was on the point of answering that he preferred not to smoke, but
+intended to read the night through, and could on no account consent to
+the lamp being veiled, when it occurred to him that it was of no use
+cutting off his nose to spite his face.  He was just dying for a smoke.
+So the bargain was struck, and we were soon puffing away like traction
+engines.
+
+"Now the Frenchman who had been turned out of his seat was no fool of a
+Gaul.  Whether suggested by the settling of our little difference or
+originating with himself, the idea seemed to strike him that he too
+might just as well obtain terms from the enemy to his own advantage.
+The unlicked cub aforesaid was slumbering peacefully in his corner, his
+long legs straight across the compartment, for we were three on that
+side, and there was no room to put them on the seat.  The first station
+we stop at, up gets the Frenchman, flings open the door, letting in a
+sort of young hurricane, and of course stumbling over the sleeper's
+legs.  Aggressive female looks daggers.  But when this had happened
+several times--for the stoppages were pretty frequent, and even though
+but for a minute the Frenchman took good care to tumble out--she began
+to expostulate.
+
+"`It was cruel to disturb her poor boy's slumbers continually like that.
+Surely there was no necessity to get out at every station.'
+
+"That Frenchman's grin was something to see.  He was _desole_; but
+_enfin_!  What would madame?  He had been turned out of his corner seat,
+and could not sleep sitting bolt upright.  It was absolutely necessary
+for him to get a mouthful of fresh air and stretch his legs at every
+opportunity.  But the remedy was in madame's hands.  Let _monsieur_
+change places with him.  Monsieur was young, whereas he was--well, not
+so young as he used to be.  Otherwise he was sorry to say it, but his
+restlessness would compel him to take exercise at every station they
+stopped at.
+
+"Heavens! that old termagant looked sick.  But she was thoroughly
+bested.  If she refused the enemy would be as good as his word, and her
+whelp might make up his mind to stay awake all night.  So she caved in,
+sulkily enough, and with much bland bowing and smiling the Frenchman got
+back his corner seat, or one as good, and the cub snored on his dam's
+shoulder.  Thus we all regained our rights again, and everybody was
+happy."
+
+"Devilish good yarn, Fordham," said Phil.  "But you be hanged with your
+Smith, old man.  Why, that was you--you all over."
+
+"Was it?  I said it was Smith.  But the point is immaterial, especially
+at this time of day.  And now, Phil, own up, as you contemplate this
+howling, hungry crowd of the alpenstock contingent, that you bless my
+foresight which coerced you into posting on every stick and stone you
+possess, bar your trusty knapsack.  If you don't now, you will when we
+get to Visp and tranquilly make our way through a frantic mob all
+shouting for its luggage at once.  Here we are at Sierre.  Sure to be a
+wait.  I wonder if there's a _buffet_.  Hallo!  What now?"
+
+For his companion, whose head was half through the window, suddenly
+withdrew it with a wild ejaculation, then rushed from the carriage like
+a lunatic, vouchsafing no word of explanation as to the phenomenon--or
+apology for having stamped Fordham's pet corn as flat as though a steam
+roller had passed over it.  The latter, scowling, looked cautiously
+forth, and then the disturbing element became apparent.  There, on the
+platform, in a state of more than all his former exuberance, stood
+Philip, talking--with all his eyes--to Alma Wyatt, and with all his
+might to her uncle and aunt, who had just stepped out of the train to
+join her.  And at the sight Fordham dropped back into his seat with a
+saturnine guffaw.
+
+But the next words uttered by his volatile friend caused him to sit up
+and attend.
+
+"This is a most unexpected pleasure, General," Philip was saying.  "Why
+I thought you were a fixture at the Grindelwald for the rest of your
+time."
+
+"Couldn't stand it.  Far too much bustle and noise.  No.  Some one told
+us of a place called Zinal, and we are going there now."
+
+"What an extraordinary coincidence!" cried Phil, delightedly.  "The fact
+is we are bound for that very place."
+
+"The devil we are!" growled Fordham to himself at this astounding piece
+of intelligence.  "I have hitherto been under the impression, friend
+Phil, that we were bound for Visp--_en route_ for Zermatt."
+
+"But--where's Mr Fordham?  Is he with you?" went on Mrs Wyatt.
+
+"Rather.  He's--er--just kicking together our traps.  I'll go and see
+after him.  Fordham, old chap, come along," he cried, bursting into the
+carriage again.
+
+"Eh?" was the provokingly cool reply.
+
+"Don't you see?" went on Phil, hurriedly.  "Now be a good old chap, and
+tumble to my scheme.  Let's go to Zinal instead."
+
+"I don't care.  How about our traps though?  They're posted to t'other
+place."
+
+"Hang that.  We can send for 'em.  And er--I say, Fordham, don't let on
+we weren't going there all along.  I sort of gave them to understand we
+were.  You know?"
+
+"I do.  I overheard you imperil your immortal soul just now, Philip
+Orlebar.  And you want me to abet you in the utter loss thereof?  It is
+a scandalous proposal, but--Here, hurry up if you're going to get out.
+The train is beginning to move on again."
+
+"Delighted to meet you again, Fordham," said the old General, shaking
+the latter heartily by the hand.  "What are your plans?  They tell us we
+ought to sleep here, in Sierre, to-night and go on early in the
+morning."
+
+"That's what we are going to do."
+
+"A good idea.  We might all go on together.  They tell me there's a
+capital hotel here.  Which is it," he went on, glancing at the caps of
+two rival commissionaires.
+
+"The `Belle Vue.'  But it's only a step.  Hardly worth while getting
+into the omnibus."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+IN THE VAL D'ANNIVIERS.
+
+There are few more beautiful and romantic scenes than the lower end of
+the Val d'Anniviers as, having after a long and tedious ascent by very
+abrupt zig-zags reached Niouc, you leave the Rhone Valley with its
+broad, snake-like river and numberless watch-towers, its villages and
+whitewashed churches, and Sion with its cathedral and dominated by its
+castled rock in the distance--you leave all this behind and turn your
+face mountainwards.
+
+Far below, glimpsed like a thread from the road, the churning waters of
+the Navigenze course through their rocky channel with a sullen roar,
+their hoarse raving, now loud, now deadened, as a bend of the steep
+mountain-side opens or shuts out the view beneath, and with it the
+sound.  From the river the slopes shoot skyward in one grand sweep--
+abrupt, unbroken, well-nigh precipitous.  Pine forests, their dark-green
+featheriness looking at that height like a different growth of grass
+upon the lighter hue of the pastures--huge rocks and boulders lying in
+heaped-up profusion even as when first hurled from the mountain-side
+above, seeming mere pebble heaps--_chalets_, too, in brown groups like
+toy chocolate houses or standing alone perched on some dizzy eyrie among
+their tiny patches of yellow cornland--all testify to the stupendous
+vastness of Nature's scale.  And at the head of the valley the forking
+cone of the Besso, and beyond it, rising from its amphitheatre of snow,
+the white crest of the Rothhorn soaring as it were to the very heavens
+in its far-away altitude.  And the air!  It is impossible to exaggerate
+its clear exhilaration.  It is like drinking in the glow of sunshine
+even as golden wine--it is like bathing in the entrancing blue of the
+firmament above.
+
+"Alma, you have treated me shockingly," Philip was saying, while they
+two were seated by the roadside to rest and await the arrival of the
+others, who might be seen toiling up the zig-zags aforesaid, but yet a
+little way off.  "Shockingly, do you hear.  You never wrote me a line,
+as you promised, and but that by great good luck we happened to be in
+the same train I should never have known you were coming here at all."
+
+"That's odd.  Is the place we are going to of such enormous extent that
+we could both be in it without knowing of each other's proximity?" she
+said innocently, but with a mischievous gleam lurking in her eyes.
+
+"No--er--why?"
+
+Alma laughed--long and merrily.  "You are a very poor schemer, Phil.
+Your friend would have had his answer ready--but you have regularly--
+er--`given yourself away'--isn't that the expression?  Confess now--and
+remember that it is only a full and unreserved confession that gains
+forgiveness.  You were not going to Zinal at all--and you have
+hoodwinked my uncle shamefully?"
+
+"What a magician you are!" was the somewhat vexed answer.  And then he
+joined in her laugh.
+
+"Am I?  Well I thought at first that the coincidence was too striking to
+be a coincidence.  Where were you going?"
+
+"To Zermatt.  But what a blessed piece of luck it was that I happened to
+put my head out of the window at that poky little station.  But for that
+only think what we should have missed.  Heavens!  It's enough to make a
+fellow drop over the cliff there to think of it."
+
+"Is it!  But only think what an unqualified--er--misstatement you have
+committed yourself to.  Doesn't that weigh on your conscience like
+lead?"
+
+"No," replied the sinner, unabashed.  "It's a clear case of the end
+justifying the means.  And then--all's fair in love and war," he added,
+with a gleeful laugh.
+
+"You dear Phil.  You are very frivolous, you know," she answered,
+abandoning her inquisitorial tone for one that was very soft and
+winsome.  "Well, as we are here--thanks to your disgraceful stratagem--I
+suppose we must make the best of it."
+
+"Darling!" was the rapturous response--"Oh, hang it!"
+
+The latter interpolation was evoked by the sudden appearance of the
+others around a bend of the road, necessitating an equally sudden change
+in the speaker's attitude and intentions.  But the sting of the whole
+thing lay in the fact that during that alteration he had caught
+Fordham's glance, and the jeering satire which he read therein inspired
+him with a wildly insane longing to knock that estimable misogynist over
+the cliff then and there.
+
+"Well, young people.  You've got the start of us and kept it," said the
+General, as they came up.  His wife was mounted on a mule, which
+quadruped was towed along by the bridle by a ragged and unshaven
+Valaisan.
+
+"Alma dear, why didn't you wait for us at that last place--Niouc, isn't
+it, Mr Fordham?" said the old lady, reproachfully.  "We had some coffee
+there."
+
+"Which was so abominably muddy we couldn't drink it--ha--ha!" put in the
+General.  "But it's a long way on to the next place--isn't it, Fordham?"
+
+"Never mind, auntie.  I don't want anything, really," replied Alma.  "I
+never felt so fit in my life.  Oh!" she broke off, in an ecstatic tone.
+"What a grand bit of scenery!"
+
+"Rather too grand to be safe just here?" returned Mrs Wyatt, "I'm
+afraid.  I shall get down and walk."
+
+The road--known at this point as "Les Pontis"--here formed a mere ledge
+as it wound round a lateral ravine--lying at right angles to the gorge--
+a mere shelf scooped along the face of the rock.  On the inner side the
+cliff shot up to a great height overhead on the outer side--space.
+Looking out over the somewhat rickety rail the tops of the highest trees
+seemed a long way beneath.  Twelve feet of roadway and the mule
+persisting in walking near the edge.  No wonder the old lady preferred
+her feet to the saddle.
+
+Mere pigmies they looked, wending their way along the soaring face of
+the huge cliffs.  Now and then the road would dive into a gallery or
+short tunnel, lighted here and there by a rough loophole--by putting
+one's head out of which a glance at the unbroken sweep of the cliff
+above and below conveyed some idea as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking.
+
+"A marvellous piece of engineering," pronounced the General, looking
+about him critically.  "Bless my soul! this bit of road alone is worth
+coming any distance to see."
+
+Philip and Alma had managed to get on ahead again.
+
+"Oh, look!" cried the latter, excitedly.  "Look--look!  There's a bunch
+of edelweiss, I declare!"
+
+He followed her glance.  Some twelve feet overhead grew a few
+mud-coloured blossoms.  The rock sloped here, and the plant had found
+root in a cranny filled up with dust.
+
+"No; don't try it!  It's too risky, you may hurt yourself," went on
+Alma, in a disappointed tone.  "We must give them up, I suppose."
+
+But this was not Philip's idea.  He went at the steep rock bank as
+though storming a breach.  There was nothing to hold on to; but the
+impetus of his spring and the height of his stature combined carried him
+within reach of the edelweiss.  Then he slid back amid a cloud of dust
+and shale, barking his shins excruciatingly, but grasping in his fist
+four of the mud-coloured blossoms.
+
+"Are you hurt?" cried Alma, her eyes dilating.  "You should not have
+tried it.  I told you not to try it."
+
+"Hurt?  Not a bit!  Here are the edelweiss flowers though."  And in the
+delighted look which came into Alma's eyes as she took them, he felt
+that he would have been amply rewarded for a dozen similar troubles.
+But just then a whimsical association of ideas brought back to his mind
+the absurd postscript to that letter which had so sorely perturbed him.
+"Be sure you send me a big bunch of `adleweis' from the top of the
+Matterhorn"; and the recollection jarred horribly as he contrasted the
+writer of that execrable epistle, and the glorious refined beauty of
+this girl who stood here alone with him, so appropriately framed in this
+entrancing scene of Nature's grandeur.
+
+"That is delightful," said Alma, gleefully, as she arranged the blossoms
+in her dress.  "Now I have got some edelweiss at last.  When we get to
+Zinal I shall be the envied of all beholders, except that every one
+there will have hats full of it, I suppose."
+
+"I don't know about that Fordham says it's getting mighty scarce
+everywhere.  But it's poor looking stuff.  As far as I can make out, its
+beauty, like that of a show bulldog, lies in its ugliness."
+
+"Shall I ever forget this sweet walk!" she said, gazing around as though
+to photograph upon her mind every detail of the surroundings.  "You
+think me of a gushing disposition.  In a minute you will think me of a
+complaining and discontented one.  But just contrast this with a
+commonplace, and wholly uninteresting cockneyfied suburb such as that
+wherein my delectable lot is cast, and then think of the difference."
+
+"Dearest, you know I don't think you--er--discontented or anything of
+the sort," he rejoined, fervently.  "But--I thought Surbiton was rather
+a pretty place.  The river--and all that--"
+
+"A mere romping ground for 'Arry and 'Arriet to indulge their horseplay.
+Philip, I--hate the place.  There!"
+
+"Then, darling, why go back to it? or anyhow, only to get ready to leave
+it as soon as possible," he answered quickly.
+
+"Phil, you are breaking our compact, and I won't answer that question.
+No.  What I mean is that it is lamentable to think how soon I shall be
+back in that flat, stale, and unprofitable place.  Why this will seem
+like a different state of existence, looked back upon then--indeed, it
+is hard to believe that the same world can comprise the two."
+
+The road had now left its rocky windings and here entered the cool shade
+of feathery pine woods, the latter in no wise unwelcome, for the sun was
+now high enough to make himself felt.  It might be that neither of them
+were destined to forget that walk in the early morning through an
+enchanted land.  The soaring symmetry of the mighty peaks; the great
+slopes and the jagged cliffs; the fragrance of the pine needles and
+moist, moss-covered rocks; the golden network of sunlight through the
+trees, and the groups of picturesque _chalets_ perched here and there
+upon the spurs; the sweet and exhilarating air, and the hoarse thunder
+of the torrent far below in its rocky prison--sights and sounds of
+fairyland all.  And to these two wandering side by side there was
+nothing lacking to complete the spell.  It was such a day as might well
+remain stamped upon their memory--such a day as in the time to come they
+might often and often recall.  But--would it be with joy, or would it be
+with pain?
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Meanwhile, the first half of the journey was over, for the picturesque
+grouping of _chalets_ clustering around a massive church which suddenly
+came into sight announced that they had reached Vissoye, the most
+considerable place in the valley.  Here a long halt was to be made; and
+the old people indeed were glad of a rest, for it had grown more than
+warm.  So after breakfast in the cheerful and well-ordered hotel, the
+General lit his pipe and strolled forth to find a shady corner of the
+garden where he could smoke and doze, while his wife, spying a
+convenient couch in the empty _salon_, was soon immersed in the
+shadowland attained through the medium of "forty winks."
+
+Left to themselves, Alma and Philip strolled out into the village,
+gazing interestedly upon the quaint architecture and devices which
+ornamented the great brown _chalets_.  Then they wandered into the
+church--a massive parallelogram, with a green ash-tree springing from
+its belfry.  Alma was delighted with the wealth of symbolism and rich
+colouring displayed alike upon wall and in window, roof and shrine; but
+Philip voted it crude and tawdry.
+
+"There speaks the true John Bull abroad," she whispered.  "As it
+happens, the very crudeness of it constitutes its artistic merit, for it
+is thoroughly in keeping.  And the heavy gilding of the vine device,
+creeping around the scarlet ground-colour of those pillars, is anything
+but tawdry.  It is quaint, _bizarre_, if you will, but striking and
+thoroughly effective.  I suppose you want nothing but that desolate grey
+stone and the frightful wall tablets which give to our English
+cathedrals the look of so many deserted railway stations."
+
+"Oh, I don't care either way.  That sort of thing isn't in my line.  But
+look, Alma, what are they putting up those trestles for?  I suppose they
+are going to bury somebody."
+
+"Where?  Oh, very likely," as she perceived a little old man, who, aided
+by a boy, was beginning to clear a space in front of the choir steps,
+with a view to arranging a pile of trestles which they had brought in.
+"We may as well go outside now."
+
+They went out on to the terrace-like front of the graveyard, and sat
+down upon the low wall overhanging the deep green valley, which fell
+abruptly to the brawling Navigenze beneath.  Gazing upon the blue
+arching heavens, and the emerald slopes sleeping in the golden sunshine,
+Alma heaved a deep sigh of happy, contented enjoyment.
+
+"Ah, the contrasts of life!" she remarked.  "At this moment I am trying
+to imagine that I am in the same world as that hateful suburb, with its
+prim villas and stucco gentility--its dull, flat, mediocre pretensions
+to `prettiness.'  Yes, indeed, life contains some marvellous contrasts."
+
+"Here comes one of them, for instance," said Philip.  "This must be the
+funeral they were getting ready for."
+
+A sound of chanting--full, deep-throated, and melodious--mingled with
+the subdued crunch of many feet upon the gravelled walk as the head of a
+procession appeared, wending round the corner of the massive building.
+First came a little group of surpliced priests and acolytes, preceded by
+a tall silver crucifix and two burning tapers; then the coffin, borne by
+four men.  Following on behind came a score of mourners--men, women, and
+children, hard-featured villagers all, but showing something very real,
+very subdued, in the aspect of their grief.
+
+"_Requiem aeternam dona et, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat et_."  The
+massive plain-song chant wailed melodiously forth, swelling upon the
+sunlit air in a wave of sound.  The two seated there had been discussing
+the contrasts of life.  Here was a greater contrast still--the contrast
+of Death.
+
+"_Exultabunt Domino ossa humiliata_" arose the chant again, as the
+_cortege_ defiled within the church.  And through the open door the
+spectators could see the flash of the silver cross and the starry
+glitter of the carried lights moving up the centre above the heads of
+the mourners.
+
+"So even in this paradise-like spot we are invaded by--death," said
+Alma, in a subdued voice, as having waited a moment or two they rose to
+leave.  "Still, even death is rendered as bright as the living know
+how," she went on, with a glance around upon the flower-decked graves
+between which they were threading their way.  "Confess now, you British
+Philistine, isn't all that more impressive than the black horses and
+plumes and hearses of our inimitable England?"
+
+"I daresay it might be if one understood it," answered Philip,
+judiciously.  "But I say, Alma, it isn't cheerful whatever way you take
+it!"
+
+Mrs Wyatt was already on her mule as they regained the hotel, and the
+General, leaning on his alpenstock, stood giving directions--with the
+aid of Fordham--to the men in charge of the pack mules bearing their
+luggage.
+
+"Alma, child," he said reprovingly, while Philip had dived indoors to
+get his knapsack, "you're doing a very foolish thing, walking about all
+the time instead of resting.  You'll be tired to death before you get
+there."
+
+"No, no I won't, uncle dear!" she answered, with a bright smile.  "You
+forget this isn't--Surbiton.  Why I could walk for ever in this air.  I
+feel as fresh now as when we left Sierre this morning."
+
+Certainly she gave no reason to imagine the contrary as they pursued
+their way in the glowing afternoon--on past little clusters of
+_chalets_, through pine woods and rocky landslips, crossing by shaky log
+bridges the rolling, milky torrent, which had roared at such a dizzy
+depth beneath their road earlier in the day.  The snow peaks in front
+drew nearer and nearer, the bright glow of the setting sun spread in
+horizontal rays over the now broadening out valley, and there on the
+outskirts of a straggling village, surrounded by green meadows wherein
+the peasants were busy tossing their hay crops, stood the hotel--a large
+oblong house, partly of brick, partly of wood, burnt brown by exposure
+to the sun, like the residue of the _chalets_ around.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+As they arrived the first bell was ringing for _table d'hote_ dinner,
+and people were dropping in by twos and threes, or in parties, returning
+from expeditions to adjacent glaciers or elsewhere.  Some were armed
+with ice-axes, and one or two with ropes and guides.  Nearly all had red
+noses and peeled countenances, and this held good of both sexes, more
+especially of that which is ordinarily termed the fair.  But this--at
+first startling--phenomenon Fordham explained to be neither the result
+of the cup that cheers and does inebriate nor of any organic disorder of
+the cuticle, but merely the action of the sun's rays reflected from the
+surface of the snow or ice with the effect of a burning glass.  Alma
+made a little grimace.
+
+"I think I shall confine my wanderings to where there's no snow or ice--
+and I do so want to go on a glacier--rather than become an object like
+that," lowering her voice as a tall, angular being of uncertain age--
+with a fearfully peeled and roasted countenance, and with her skirts
+tucked up to show an amount of leg which should have brought her under
+the ban of the Lord Chamberlain--strode by with a mien and assurance as
+though she held first mortgage on the whole of the Alps, as Fordham
+graphically put it.
+
+"You can patrol the glaciers for a week if you only cover your face with
+a veil," answered the latter.  "You may burn a little, but nothing near
+the horrible extent you would otherwise."
+
+"The house doesn't seem crowded," remarked Philip, when _table d'hote_
+was half through.  They had secured the end of the long table, and there
+was a hiatus of several empty chairs between them and their next
+neighbours.  This and the stupendous clatter of knives and forks and
+tongues, enabled them to talk with no more restraint than a slight
+lowering of the voice.
+
+"By Jove!" he went on, withdrawing his glance from an attentive scrutiny
+of the table, "it's a mighty seedy crowd, anyhow.  All British, too.
+Look at those half-dozen fellows sitting together there.  Did any one
+ever see such an unshaven, collarless squad of bounders?"
+
+The objects of the speaker's somewhat outspoken scorn assuredly did
+their best to justify it.  They answered exactly to his description as
+to their appearance.  Moreover when they spoke it was in the dialect of
+Edgware Road rather than that of Pall Mall.  Two or three
+gaudily-dressed females of like stamp seemed to belong to them.  Beyond
+were other people in couples or in parties.
+
+"Don't you think you are rather hard on them, Philip?" objected Mrs
+Wyatt--for by virtue of the General's former acquaintance with his
+father, and their now fast-growing intimacy with himself, the old people
+had taken to calling him by his Christian name.
+
+Alma broke into a little laugh.
+
+"Auntie, you remind us of `the Infliction' at Les Avants.  She always
+used to begin `Don't you think.'"
+
+"Mrs Wyatt used to sit opposite her," said Phil, slily.
+
+"You're a naughty boy, Phil," laughed the old lady, "and you've no
+business to poke fun at your grandmother.  But I think you are too hard
+on those poor fellows.  They may not have any luggage with them."
+
+"No more have we.  Fordham and I will have to live in our knapsacks for
+the next week.  And even if we had no clothes we'd manage by hook or by
+crook to beg, borrow, or steal a razor."
+
+"I don't think much of the population, certainly," put in the General.
+"There were a much better stamp of people at Les Avants."
+
+"Always are," said Fordham.  "It's a place where people go to stay, and
+the same people go there again and again.  Moreover, it isn't enough of
+a show-place to attract the mere tourist.  'Arry itinerant patronises
+the higher resorts, where he can walk across a glacier and brag about it
+ever after.  But this is an exceptionally weedy crowd, as Phil says," he
+added, sticking up his eyeglass and taking stock of the same.
+
+"Not all.  I don't think quite all," objected Mrs Wyatt.  "Those two
+ladies sitting next to the clergyman down there look rather nice.  Don't
+you think so, Mr Fordham?"
+
+"Might discharge both barrels of a shot-gun down the table and not
+damage a social equal," was the uncompromising reply.
+
+But little it mattered to them in a general way what sort of a lot their
+fellow-countrymen there sojourning might or might not be.  It was
+delightful to exchange the low stuffy _salle-a-manger_, with its
+inevitable reek of fleshpots, its clatter of knives and forks and its
+strife of tongues, for the sweet hay-scented evening air, with the
+afterglow reddening and fading on the double-horned Besso and the
+snowfields beyond, the stars twinkling forth one by one against the loom
+of the great mountain wall which seemed literally to overhang the
+valley.  There was a lulling, soothing sense in the sequestered
+propinquity of the great mountains, in the dull roar of the
+ever-speaking torrent.  Old General Wyatt, seated on a bench smoking his
+evening pipe, expressed unbounded satisfaction.
+
+"It's like a paradise after that abominably rackety Grindelwald," he
+pronounced.
+
+"Yes, dear," assented his wife.  "But what I want to know is," she added
+in a low tone, "how is that going to end?"
+
+"How is what?--Oh--ah--yes--um!" as he followed her glance.
+
+The latter had lighted upon their niece and her now inseparable escort.
+They had returned from an evening stroll, and were standing looking
+about them as though loth to go in.  Alma had thrown on a cloak, for
+there was a touch of sharpness in the air, and the soft fur seemed to
+cling caressingly round the lower part of her face, framing and throwing
+into greater prominence the luminous eyes and sweet, refined beauty.
+She was discoursing animatedly, but the old people were too far off for
+the burden of her ideas to reach them.
+
+"It is going to end in the child completely knocking herself up," said
+the General with a disapproving shake of the head.  "She must have
+walked twenty miles to-day if she has walked one.  Now mind, she must
+stay at home to-morrow and rest thoroughly."
+
+"That isn't what I mean, and you know it isn't," urged the old lady in a
+vexed tone.
+
+"Ha-ha!  I know it isn't," he answered with a growl that was more than
+half a chuckle.
+
+"Well, and what do you think of it?"
+
+"Um! ah!  I don't know what to think.  If the young people like each
+other, I don't see why they shouldn't see plenty of each other--in a
+place like this.  If they decide they don't--well, there's no harm
+done."
+
+"But I've always heard you say that Sir Francis Orlebar was a poor man--
+a poor man with a second wife," said Mrs Wyatt, tentatively.
+
+"So is Alma.  I don't mean with a second wife--ha-ha!  But she hasn't a
+sixpence, and it would be a blessed day for her that on which she got
+away from that mother of hers for good and all."
+
+"But isn't that all the more reason she should marry somebody who is
+well off?"
+
+"Well, yes, I suppose it is.  But then, you can't have everything.  It's
+seldom enough you get cash and every other desirable endowment thrown
+in.  Now I like Phil Orlebar.  I don't know when I've seen a young
+fellow I've liked more.  It's a thousand pities, though, that his father
+didn't put him into some profession or give him something to do; but it
+isn't too late now, and Alma might do worse.  Here--hang it all!" he
+broke off with a growl.--"What a couple of mischief-making old
+match-makers we are becoming.  It's getting cold.  Time to go in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+"ALL IN THE BLUE UNCLOUDED WEATHER."
+
+"When are we going to begin some real climbing--eh, Phil?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  By the way, Fordham, I'm not sure that real high
+climbing isn't a mistake.  It seems rather a thin thing to put oneself
+to any amount of unmitigated fag, and go sleeping out under rocks or in
+huts and in all sorts of beastly places chock full of fleas, and turn
+out at ungodly hours in the morning--in the middle of the night,
+rather--merely for the sake of shinning up to the top of some confounded
+rock that scores of other fellows have shinned up already, and thousands
+more will.  No; I believe there's far more sense in this sort of thing,
+and I'm certain it's far more fun."
+
+"This sort of thing" being a long day's expedition of the nature of a
+picnic, a walk for the most part over the glacier to some point of
+interest or scenic advantage, which in the present instance was a trip
+to the Mountet Cabin, a structure erected by the Alpine Club high up
+among the rocks at the base of the Besso, for the convenience of parties
+ascending the Rothhorn or traversing one of the several difficult, and
+more or less dangerous, glacier passes leading into the next valley.
+The hour was early--before sunrise in fact--and our two friends were
+threading their way rapidly between the rows of brown _chalets_ which
+constitute the picturesque hamlet of Zinal, intent on overtaking the
+rest of their party, who had "just strolled quietly on," a process which
+in nineteen cases out of twenty may be taken to mean that if the
+overtaker comes up with the advance guard within a couple of hours, he
+or she has progressed at a rate by no means pleasant or advisable as the
+start for a long day's walk or climb.  This instance, however, was the
+twentieth, for whereas those in advance consisted of General Wyatt and
+his niece, two learned young ladies with short-cropped hair and
+spectacles, and a young clergyman, also in spectacles, the athletic pair
+had no difficulty in overhauling them in a very short time, and that
+with no inordinate effort.
+
+"Well, Mr Fordham.  It isn't always we poor women who keep everybody
+waiting," said Alma, mischievously, as they came up, with a glance at
+Phil, to whose reluctance to leave his snug couch until the very last
+moment was due the fact that the party had not started together.
+
+"That's what comes of doing a good action--one always gets abused for
+it," replied Fordham.  "If I hadn't acted as whipper-in you'd never have
+seen this lazy dog until you were half-way home again."
+
+"Oh, the poor _men_!  They never can bring themselves to leave their
+beds.  And yet they call themselves the stronger sex," put in one of the
+shock-headed young women, who, by virtue of being students at one of the
+seats of learning recently founded for their sex, looked down as from a
+lofty pedestal and with sublime pity upon the world at large.  "The
+strong-minded sex, I should have said."
+
+"Not much use, are they, Miss Severn?" said the parson in playful
+banter.
+
+"Except when the midnight mouse in the wainscotting suggests burglars,
+or the booming of the wind in the chimney, bogies," rejoined Fordham,
+tranquilly.  "In a thunderstorm, too, their presence is apt to be highly
+reassuring."
+
+To this the shock-headed one deigned no rejoinder.  She and her sister
+had formed some slight acquaintance with the Wyatts, and had joined them
+in expeditions similar to the present one; in fact, were rather more
+glad to do so than the others were that they should.  Like too many of
+their kind they imagined that disagreeable, not to say rude, remarks at
+the expense of the opposite sex demonstrated the superiority of their
+own in general, and such representatives of it as devoted their minds to
+conic sections in particular.
+
+Nothing, as a rule, is more depressing to the poor creatures of an
+effete civilisation than an early morning start.  Than the hour of
+summer sunrise in the Alps, however, nothing is more exhilarating.  The
+cool, fresh, bracing air, the statuesque grandeur of the great
+mountains, the dash and sparkle of the swirling stream, the mingling
+aromatic fragrances distilling from opening wild flowers and resinous
+pines--it is a glimpse of fairyland, a very tonic to heart and brain, a
+reservoir of nerve power to limb and system.
+
+And now beyond the huge projecting shoulder of the Alpe d'Arpitetta the
+rays of the newly-risen sun were flooding the snowfields with a golden
+radiancy.  No more shade directly.  But the air was crisp, and the sky
+of cloudless beauty.  To two of those present it was but the beginning
+of a glowing halcyon day--one among many.  Nearly a fortnight had gone
+by since their arrival, a fortnight spent in similar fashion--one day
+succeeding another, spent from dawn to dark amid the sublimest scenes of
+Nature on her most inspiring scale.
+
+Philip Orlebar, the mercurial, the careless, had undergone a marked
+change.  And it was a change which affected him for the better, was that
+brought about by this crisis of his life, in that it seemed to impart a
+not wholly unneeded ballast to his otherwise line character, a dignity
+to his demeanour which became him well, the more so that there was the
+stamp of a great and settled happiness upon his face, and in the
+straight, sunny glance of the clear eyes, that was goodly to look upon.
+The Fire of the Live Coal burnt bright and clear.
+
+"Alma, darling, why not let me say something to your uncle now instead
+of waiting until you go home again?" he said one day, when they were
+scrambling about among the rocks in search of the coveted edelweiss.
+"Then I shall feel that you do really belong to me."
+
+She looked at him for a moment--looked at him standing over her in his
+straight youthful strength and patrician beauty, and hesitated.  She was
+growing very fond of him, and, more important still, very proud of him,
+which with a woman of Alma's stamp means that her surrender is already a
+thing to be ranked among certainties.  But the circumstances of her home
+life had been such as to impart to her character a vein of wisdom, of
+caution, which was considerably beyond her years.
+
+"No, Phil--not yet," she answered, with a little shake of her head; but
+beneath all the decision of her tone there lay a hidden caress.  "This
+is a summer idyll--a mere holiday.  Wait until it is over and life--real
+life--begins again.  No, stop--I won't have that--here," she broke off
+suddenly, springing away from him with a laugh and a blush.  "Remember
+how many people at the hotel have telescopes, not to mention the big one
+planted out in front of the door.  We may constitute an object of
+special attention at the present moment, for all we know."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Return we to our party now bound for the Mountet hut, _via_ the Durand
+glacier.  This was not the first time they had made this expedition,
+consequently they were able to dispense with a guide--and Fordham, at
+any rate, had had sufficient previous Alpine experience.  The great
+silent ice river locked within the vast depths of its rock-bound bed
+rippled in a succession of frozen billows between its lofty mountain
+walls, the human figures traversing it looking the merest pigmies among
+the awful vastness of the Alpine solitude.  Myriad threads of clear
+water gurgled with musical murmur through the blue smooth funnels they
+had worn for themselves in the surface of the ice, which glistened and
+sparkled in the sunlight in a sea of diamond-like facets.  "Tables,"
+viz, stones of all shapes and sizes heaved up, by the action of the
+glacier, upon smooth round ice-pedestals--sometimes perfectly wonderful
+in their resemblance to the real article of furniture--abounded, and
+here and there the dull hollow roar of some heavier stream plunging
+between the vertical blue sides of a straight chimney-like shaft, which
+it had worn to an incredible depth by its action.
+
+"What an extremely good-looking fellow that young Orlebar is," remarked
+the clergyman, who had been observing the pair some little distance in
+front.
+
+"I can't say that handsome men are at all to my taste," replied the
+elder of the two learned sisters, loyal to a recollection of evenings
+spent at meetings of various scientific societies in the company of an
+undersized, round-shouldered professor with a huge head of unkempt hair
+and a very dandruffy coat-collar.  "There is never anything in them.
+They are invariably empty-headed to a degree."
+
+"And desperately conceited," put in the younger, acidly.
+
+"And this young Orlebar is the most empty-headed and conceited of them
+all," rejoined the elder.  "I consider him a perfectly odious young
+man."
+
+"Really?  Now, do you know--I--er--I thought him rather a nice fellow,"
+said the clergyman timidly.  "Very pleasant and taking manners, and a
+perfect gentleman."
+
+"There is no accounting for tastes, of course," was the severely frigid
+reply; and the poor parson's heart sank within him as he wondered
+whether this sort of thing was to be his lot all day, and whether it
+would be practicable to cut adrift from his present convoy and effect a
+juncture with Fordham and the General, now some few score yards in the
+rear.
+
+"Alma dear, who on earth cut those awful Severns into our crowd to-day?"
+Philip was saying, moved doubtless by that extraordinary coincidence
+which inspires two people simultaneously with the same idea, though that
+idea be entirely irrelevant to any subject then under consideration or
+discussion.
+
+Alma laughed.
+
+"I think they more than three parts cut themselves in, and having done
+so, cut in Mr Massiter," she answered.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind the parson!  He's an inoffensive chap, you know, and a
+good sort, I think.  But those two fearful girls, with their `terms' and
+their `triposes' and the `dear Principal,' and their shock heads, and
+`quite too-too' get-up!  Faugh!  They never open their mouths without
+saying something tart and disagreeable.  I suppose they think it a sign
+of erudition."
+
+"We mustn't abuse other people, especially on a day like this--it's a
+bad habit to get into.  I agree with you though--they might make
+themselves a little more pleasant.  However, they have their use.
+Didn't it ever occur to you, you dear, foolish boy, that I may not
+always care to be the only girl in the party?  Though it amounts almost
+to the same thing, for you never will let any one else come near me."
+
+"No, I won't," he assented, cheerfully.  "I want you all to myself.  It
+may not last much longer.  And--what a time we have had.  I would
+willingly go back and go through it all again."
+
+"But we are not going away to-morrow, or the next day either," she
+replied, with a sunny laugh.  "We shall have many more such days as
+this."
+
+"It is perfect!" he continued, now in a low tone.  "Almost too perfect
+to last.  When shall we be ever again together like this?"
+
+The remark was made without a shadow of _arriere pensee_, yet it sounded
+almost prophetic.  Why should it, however?  No cloud was in their sky
+any more than in the firmament of deep blue spreading overhead.  No
+shadow was across their path any more than upon the dazzling snowfields
+lying aloft in pure and unbroken stretches.  The morrow would be but a
+reproduction of to-day--a heaven of youth and its warm pulsations, of
+sunny freedom from care, and--of love.
+
+And now Fordham's voice was heard behind.
+
+"Hallo, Phil?" it shouted, characteristically addressing the stronger
+and, in its owner's opinion, more important and only responsible member
+of the pair in advance.  "Better hold on till we come up.  We are
+getting among the _seracs_."
+
+They were.  Great masses of ice, by the side of which a five-storey
+house would look puny, were heaving up to the sky.  The glacier here
+made a steep and abrupt drop, falling abroad into wide, lateral chasms--
+not the black and grim crevasses of bottomless depth into which an army
+might disappear and leave no trace, such as the smooth, treacherous
+surface of the upper _neves_ are seamed with, but awkward rifts for all
+that, deep enough to break a limb or even a neck.  A labyrinthian course
+along the sharp ice-ridges overhanging these became necessary, and
+although Philip was armed with the requisite ice-axe and by this time
+knew how to wield it, Fordham satirically reflected that the mind of a
+man in the parlous state of his friend was not hung upon a sufficiently
+even balance to ensure the necessary equilibrium from a material and
+physical point of view.  So he chose to rally his party.
+
+A little ordinary caution was necessary, that was all.  A little
+step-cutting now and then, a helping hand for the benefit of the ladies,
+and they threaded their way in perfect safety among the yawning rifts,
+the great blue _seracs_ towering up overhead, piled in titanic
+confusion--here in huge blocks, there standing apart in tall needle-like
+shafts.  One of these suddenly collapsed close to them, falling with an
+appalling roar, filling the air with a shower of glittering fragments,
+causing the hard surface to vibrate beneath them with the grinding crash
+of hundreds of tons of solid ice.
+
+"By Jove!  What a magnificent sight?" cried the old General.  "I
+wouldn't have missed that for the world."
+
+"`He casteth forth His ice like morsels,'" quoted the parson to himself,
+but not in so low a tone as not to be heard by Alma, becoming aware of
+which he was conscious of a nervous and guilty start, as of one who had
+allowed himself to be found preaching out of church.  But he had in her
+no supercilious or scoffing critic.
+
+"I think the vastness of this ice-world is the most wonderful thing in
+Nature, Mr Massiter," she said.
+
+"It is indeed, Miss Wyatt," was the pleased reply.
+
+And then, catching eagerly at this chance of relief from the somewhat
+depressing spell of the two learned ones, the good man attached himself
+to her side and engaged her in conversation, not altogether to the
+satisfaction of Philip, who, relinquishing the entrancing but somewhat
+boyish amusement of heaving boulders down the smooth, slippery slope of
+the ice, sprang forward to help her up the narrow, treacherous path of
+the loose moraine--for they had left the ice now for a short time.
+Virtue was its own reward, however--it and a stone--which, dislodged by
+Alma's foot, came bounding down with a smart whack against the left
+ankle of the too eager cavalier, evoking from the latter a subdued if
+involuntary howl, instead of the mental "cuss-word" which we regret to
+say might have greeted the occurrence had it owned any other author.
+
+Steep and toilsome as this little bit of the way was, the two
+strong-minded ones still found breath enough to discourse to the
+General--or, rather, _through_ him _at_ Fordham, upon the never-failing
+topic, the unqualified inferiority of the other sex, causing that genial
+veteran to vote them bores of the most virulent kind, and mentally to
+resolve to dispense with their company at whatever cost on all future
+expeditions which he might undertake.
+
+"Why, you couldn't get on for a day without us!" said Fordham, bluntly,
+coming to the rescue.  "How would you have got along those _seracs_ just
+now, for instance, if left to yourselves?"
+
+"Life does not wholly consist in crossing glaciers, Mr Fordham," was
+the majestic reply.
+
+"It runs on a very good parallel with it though.  And the fact remains,
+as I said before.  You couldn't be happy for a day without us."
+
+"Indeed?" said the elder and more acid of the two, with splendid
+contempt.  "Indeed?  Don't you flatter yourself.  We could be happy--
+perfectly happy--all our lives without you."
+
+"That's fortunate, for I haven't asked you to be happy all your lives
+_with_ me," answered Fordham, blandly.
+
+The green eyes of the learned pair glared--both had green eyes--like
+those of cats in the dark.  There was a suspicious shake in the shapely
+shoulders of Alma Wyatt, who, with the parson, was leading the way, and
+the General burst into such a frantic fit of coughing that he seemed in
+imminent peril of suffocation; while a series of extraordinary sounds,
+profuse in volume if subdued in tone, emanating from Philip's broad
+chest, would have led a sudden arrival upon the scene to imagine that
+volatile youth to be afflicted with some hitherto undiscovered ailment,
+lying midway between whooping-cough and the strangles.
+
+And now once more, the fall of the glacier surmounted, the great
+ice-field lay before them in smooth and even expanse.  And what a scene
+of wild and stately grandeur was that vast amphitheatre now opening out.
+Not a tree, not a shrub in sight; nothing but rocks and ice--a great
+frozen plain, seamed and crevassed in innumerable cracks, shut in by
+towering mountains and grim rock-walls, the summits of which were
+crowned with layers of snow--the perilous "cornice" of the Alpine
+climber--curling over above the dizzy height--of dazzling whiteness
+against the deep blue of the heavens.  In crescent formation they stood,
+those stately mountains encircling the glaciers, the snow-flecked hump
+of the Grand Cornier and the huge and redoubted Dent Blanche, whose
+ruddy ironstone precipices and grim ice-crowned _aretes_ glowed in the
+full midday sunlight with sheeny prismatic gleam; the towering
+Gabelhorn, and the knife-like point of the Rothhorn soaring away as if
+to meet the blue firmament itself.  Gigantic ice-slopes, swept smooth by
+the driving gales, shone pearly and silver; and huge overhanging masses
+of blue ice, where the end of a high glacier had broken off, stood forth
+a wondrously beautiful contrast in vivid green.  But this scene of
+marvellous grandeur and desolation was not given over to silence, for
+ever and anon the fall of a mighty _serac_ would boom forth with a
+thunderous roar.  The ghostly rattle and echo of falling stones high up
+among those grim precipices was never entirely still, while the hoarse
+growling of streams cleaving their way far below in the heart of the
+glacier was as the voices of prisoned giants striving in agonised
+throes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE WRITING ON THE WALL.
+
+Not less imposing was the wild magnificence of this panorama as viewed
+from the Mountet cabin, which, from its eyrie-like position high up
+among the rocks, commanded the whole vast ice-amphitheatre.  The last
+climb, after leaving the glacier, had been a steep and trying one, and
+to most of the party, at any rate, the first consideration on reaching
+their goal was a twofold one--rest and lunch.
+
+"I suppose you don't get much sleep in these places, eh, Fordham?" said
+the General, looking round upon the plank shelves which, plentifully
+covered with straw, constituted the sleeping places.  From the beams
+above hung rugs of a heavy, coarse texture.
+
+"It depends on a good many things--the absence of fleas, or of a crowd.
+When there are three or four parties, with their guides, going the same
+way or coinciding here for the night, a box like this is apt to get
+crowded and the air thick."
+
+"It is wonderfully ingenious," said Alma, taking in the solidity of the
+building and its contrivances for safety and comfort--every stick of
+which had to be dragged up there by mules and porters.  "Where did they
+sleep before these cabins were built?"
+
+"Under the rocks.  Picked out a sheltered corner and rolled in.  A
+coldish sort of a bedroom too," answered Fordham.
+
+"And all for the sake of getting to the top of a peak that a hundred
+other fools have been up already, and a thousand more will go up
+afterwards," struck in the flippant Phil.  "Throw one of those
+hard-boiled eggs at me, Fordham.  Thanks."
+
+"Is not that kind of reasoning--er--somewhat fatal to all enterprise?"
+said the parson.
+
+"There is little enterprise, as such, in all this Alp climbing,"
+interrupted one of the learned young women before anybody could reply.
+"Not one in a hundred of all the men who spend summer after summer
+mountaineering ever thinks of benefiting his species by his experiences.
+No branch of science is the gainer by it, for the poor creature is
+lamentably ignorant of science in any branch--almost that such a thing
+exists, in fact.  To him a mountain is--a mountain, and nothing more--"
+
+"But--what in the world else should it be, Miss Severn?" said Philip.
+
+"--Just so many thousand feet to go up," continued the oracle, severely
+ignoring the flippant interruptor.
+
+"Or so many thousand feet to come down--and then return home in a sack,"
+said the latter, wickedly.
+
+"Just one more peak to add to the number he can already boast of having
+scaled.  Nobody the gainer by it.  Grand opportunities thrown away.  The
+only end effected, the aggravation of one man's already inflated
+conceit."
+
+"I don't know about nobody being the gainer by it, Miss Severn," said
+the General.  "I am disposed to think this rage for mountaineering by no
+means a bad thing--in fact a distinctly good one, as anything that calls
+forth pluck, determination, and endurance is bound to be.  Now, by the
+time a man has done two or three of these gentry there," with a wave of
+the hand in the direction of the surrounding peaks, "his nerve is likely
+to be in pretty good order, and his training and condition not very
+deficient.  No, I don't agree with you at all, Miss Severn."
+
+"The guides are very considerably the gainers by it, too," said
+Fordham--"the gainers by enough cash to tide them comfortably through
+the winter."
+
+"These are all very secondary considerations," was the lofty rejoinder.
+"Nobody touches my point after all.  General Wyatt thinks that the
+object of penetrating the wonders of these stupendous ice-worlds has
+been gained when a man has got himself into the hard muscular training
+of a mere brutal prize-fighter; while Mr Fordham thinks it quite
+sufficient if a few hundred francs find their way into the pockets of a
+few Swiss peasants.  But what does science gain by it?  Of course I
+except the researches of such men as Tyndall--but they are the rare
+exceptions."  And the speaker looked around as if challenging a reply.
+She was disappointed, however.  Nobody seemed to think it worth their
+while to undertake one.  Presently Fordham said--
+
+"It has often been remarked that we are not a logical nation.  Hardly a
+day passes without emphasising that fact to the ordinarily wide-awake
+observer."
+
+"How so?  Please explain.  I don't quite follow you," said Miss Severn,
+briskly, fiercely elate that her challenge had been taken up.
+
+"Well, we British are perennially grumbling at our abominably cold
+climate--winter all the year round, and so forth; and yet during the few
+weeks of summer vouchsafed to us away we rush to places like this, and
+stow ourselves as close to the snow and ice as we possibly can."
+
+"I--I really don't see the connection," said the would-be debater, in
+tart mystification.  "Isn't that rather a pointless remark--not to say
+irrelevant?"
+
+"Oh, no.  If anything, the reverse," answered Fordham, tranquilly.  "The
+idea was suggested by seeing several of us shiver, and it naturally
+occurred to me that we had probably sat as long as was safe if we wanted
+to avoid catching cold.  For present purposes it may be taken to mean
+that we should be wise to think of going down, still wiser to go down
+and take the thinking as thought.  What do you say, General?"
+
+"I agree with you, Fordham.  It doesn't do to sit too long in this sharp
+air, after getting heated coming up, too."
+
+So the wisdom of the elders prevailed, and the party started upon the
+homeward way.  Philip having found a long, steep snow-shoot, preferred
+the risky delights of a _glissade_ to the more sober and gradual descent
+of a series of zig-zags.  But the snow was soft, with the result that
+when half-way the adventurous one went head over heels, convulsing with
+mirth those who witnessed his frantic flounderings from the security of
+the zig-zag footpath aforesaid.  Meanwhile the two erudite damsels were
+confiding to the parson their rooted conviction that Fordham was the
+most abominably disagreeable man they had ever met--which view, however,
+being that of the bulk of their sex on the same subject, was neither
+original nor striking.
+
+And then as they gained the level of the glacier once more, again the
+wily Phil managed to pair off--to straggle indeed considerably from the
+main body--to straggle away almost to the base of the huge cliffs of the
+Grand Cornier.  Here crevasses began to open in all directions--real
+ones, yawning black in the glistening surface.
+
+"By Jove! look at that!" cried Phil, as a huge rift came into view right
+across the way they were following.  It was overhung by a wreath of
+frozen snow, and the "lip" thus formed was fringed and festooned with
+gleaming icicles.  It was a lovely and at the same time forbidding
+spectacle, as the sunlight fell upon the myriad smooth needles of ice--
+catching the star-like facets in gleaming scintillation--playing upon
+the translucent walls of the chasm in many a prismatic ray--roseate and
+gold, and richest azure.  Then, below, the black, cold depths, as of the
+bottomless pit.
+
+"It is splendid, but gruesome," said Alma, peering tentatively into the
+silent depths--a process which needed a steadying, not to say
+supporting, hand.  "I wonder how deep it is."
+
+"It's a pity, in the interests of science--but on that ground alone--
+that we haven't got our two learned friends along," said Philip,
+proceeding to roll a big stone, of which there were several on the
+surface of the glacier, to the brink.  "They could locate the depth by
+the time it takes to fall.  Now, listen!"
+
+He rolled over the stone.  It was a large one, and spoke volumes for his
+excellent condition that he was able to move it at all.  There was a
+crash and a shatter like the breaking of glass, as it crushed through
+the fringe of icicles--then a long pause, followed by a far-away and
+hollow clang.
+
+"What an awful depth," said Alma, with a shudder, instinctively drawing
+back.  "Wait!" warned Philip.  "There it goes again!"  Another clang--
+this time very faint, together with a ghostly rumbling roar as the
+prisoned echo strove to break free--told that the crevasse was of
+appalling depth, even if its bottom was yet reached.  The listeners
+looked at each other.
+
+"Not much chance once over this little bit of crushed snow," said
+Philip, breaking away the overhanging edge with the end of his ice-axe.
+
+"Horrible!" rejoined Alma, with a shudder.  "Now I think we had better
+go back to the others, for it seems to me we are getting more and more
+in among the crevasses, and it must be a trifle dangerous."
+
+It was even as she said.  The whole surface of the glacier was seamed
+and criss-crossed with yawning rifts--many of them like the one before
+them--of unknown depth.  To a fairly experienced man, and one of average
+gumption withal, the situation would have held no obstacle.  To such the
+lay of the glacier would have been understood, and he could have
+threaded his way to safer ground without difficulty.  But Philip was not
+experienced in Alpine features, and there was just a little too much of
+the bull-at-a-gate about his disposition for him to supplement this lack
+by ordinary prudence.  So they got deeper and deeper into the
+labyrinth--and moreover the sun was already shut out behind the towering
+mountain walls rearing up immediately overhead.
+
+Under these circumstances neither of the pair was sorry to hear a shout,
+and to make out a figure approaching at some distance over the ice.
+
+"It's Fordham," cried Phil.  "He'll show us the right line.  He's about
+as good as a professional guide."
+
+Not the least lovable trait in Philip Orlebar's character was his
+perfect readiness to yield to another's superior knowledge, and this he
+was wont to do, not grudgingly or as one making a concession, but fully,
+frankly, and as a matter of course.  It did not, for instance, occur to
+him that his fortnight of knocking about among the mountains and
+glaciers in the neighbourhood of Zinal--said knocking about being mostly
+in picnic fashion, as in the present case--had rendered his experience a
+trifle superior to that of Fordham, who had done a good deal of serious
+Alpine climbing in times past; and in stating this we are not dealing
+with so obvious a truism as the uninitiated would assume.  For to many
+of his age and temperament that very thing would have occurred, and does
+occur, not infrequently to their own ultimate discomfiture if not
+disaster.  We speak of that which we know.
+
+Philip therefore hailed the advent of his friend with genuine pleasure,
+not to say relief.  But the other in no wise reciprocated that warming
+sentiment.  He didn't see any fun in coming about two miles out of his
+way--and towards the end of the day, too--in order to benefit two people
+whom he had every reason to suppose would be wishing him in Halifax all
+the time.
+
+"Tired of life already, Miss Wyatt?" he said sourly, as he came up,
+pointing to a great black crevasse the two were gingerly skirting.  "Or
+do you want to anticipate death, and defeating his ravages and decay,
+ensure remaining beautiful for ever, although within the depths of a
+glacier?"
+
+"What a weird style of compliment," answered Alma, with a little laugh.
+"But any sort of compliment coming from Mr Fordham should be duly
+treasured."
+
+"Well, there's a far weirder fact underlying it.  Look here!  If you
+knew there were half a dozen even indifferent shots posted behind yonder
+_seracs_ practising at you with rifles, I believe you'd think your run
+of life was held on exceedingly frail and uncertain tenure.  Well, left
+to yourselves here, the same tenure is a good deal more uncertain than
+it would be under the other contingency--you two poor greenhorns."
+
+"Oh, come; I say, Fordham?" exclaimed Philip, deprecatorily.  But Alma
+broke into a ringing laugh.
+
+"You think it a laughing matter, do you?" went on Fordham.  "Now you
+wouldn't think that a dozen steps further of the line you're following
+would perform your own funerals?  You'd never be seen again."
+
+"Now you're cramming us, old chap," said Philip, airily, surveying the
+white unbroken surface in front.
+
+"Am I?  Very well.  Now, look."
+
+He counted exactly ten paces forward, then halted, advanced half a pace,
+and holding his ice-axe by the head, drove the point into the surface.
+In it went without resistance, as far as he allowed it to, which was
+almost to the head.  Then working it round he made a hole about half a
+yard in diameter.
+
+"Come, now, and look."  He went on cautiously knocking away more of the
+snow-crust.
+
+They obeyed, and in a moment were peering through the hole into black
+depths.  The sheeny surface of the opposite ice-wall glared at them
+through the aperture as with the disappointed glare of the eye of some
+evil beast baulked of its prey.
+
+"By Jove!" cried Philip, aghast.  "You never spoke a truer word,
+Fordham.  There would have been an end of us, sure enough.  But I say,
+old chap, how on earth did you know there was a crevasse there--a dev--,
+hum--I mean an awful one it is, too?  There's no sign or difference of
+colour in the surface."
+
+"I knew that there was bound to be one by the lay of the land.  Now
+look," he went on, pointing to the main crevasse, which yawned broadly
+parallel to the line they were pursuing, and out of which a lateral one
+sprung, and seeming to change its mind, had abruptly terminated--
+apparently so, at any rate.  "I knew that this other crack wasn't going
+to end there, although it seems to; it was too deep to start with.
+Consequently I knew that it was bound to run a considerable way _under_
+the surface, and so it does.  A dozen more steps, I repeat, and one or
+both of you would have disappeared for ever."
+
+"By Jove!" ejaculated Phil again, in mingled admiration and dismay,
+while Alma shuddered, as she gazed into the ghastly death-trap with a
+horrible fascination.
+
+"At the same time you're wrong in saying there is no sign or difference
+of colour in the surface," went on Fordham.  "There is the last--faint I
+admit--but quite enough to catch a practised eye.  And now, while we are
+prosing away here, the other people are waiting for us over on the
+_moraine_ yonder.  So keep close behind me, and let's get out of this."
+
+Under such able and experienced pilotage they soon got clear of the more
+dangerous part of the glacier--doubling and zigzaging in the most
+labyrinthine fashion to avoid perils hidden or displayed.
+
+"You can't afford to go playing about among bottomless pits in any such
+careless way, Phil, still more among masked deathtraps like some of
+those we passed," said Fordham, as they drew near their party.  "So if
+you must go skylarking on dangerous ground, you'd better have some one
+with you who knows the ropes rather more than you do, and not rather
+less."
+
+But this recollection of peril past added something of a spice to the
+keen enjoyment of a delightful day as they took their way homeward.  And
+then, as they left the wild wilderness of rocks and ice behind, the
+great silent glaciers and piled masses of rugged _moraine_, the
+westering sunlight flushing upon the soaring peaks as with a glow of
+fire, to these two it meant one more day closing as it had begun--in a
+golden unearthly beauty--closing into a brief night, which in its turn
+should soon melt into another glowing day, even as this one which had
+just fled.  But--would it?
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Two people have arrived, sir," said the head waiter, meeting Philip in
+the hall.  "Dey ask for you, sir, first thing.  One gentleman and lady."
+
+"Gentleman and lady?" echoed Phil, in amazement.  "Who the deuce can it
+be?  Who are they, Franz?"
+
+"I not know, sir.  Dey ask first for you; then they ask if we cannot
+send messenger to find you.  I tell them you away to the Mountet cabin--
+you come back quick as the messenger."
+
+"The deuce!  Who can it be?  By Jove--of course!  The governor and her
+ladyship!  It'll be right good getting the old man out here.  Don't know
+about her ladyship though," he parenthesised, dubiously.  "Where are
+they, Franz?"
+
+"Here we are, Philip," cried a masculine voice, which was certainly not
+that of Sir Francis Orlebar, and a hand dropped upon his shoulder with
+would-be cordiality.
+
+The recipient of this unceremonious salute started as if he had been
+shot.  Then he turned--turned with what cordiality he could muster, to
+confront the speaker.
+
+The latter was an elderly man of portentous aspect, ruddy of
+countenance, and keen of eye.  A thick white beard hid the lower half of
+his face, and a crop of bristling white hair adorned his summit, which
+last, however, was now concealed by a large pith helmet and puggaree.
+He wore a great expanse of waistcoat, covering a redundancy of person
+which went far towards bearing out his sleek and aggressively prosperous
+appearance.  He looked the sort of man who would be a law unto a
+roomful--the sort of man whose thumbs would oft seek the armholes of his
+waistcoat.  He looked what he was--the prosperous, comfortable British
+merchant who had begun life a good deal lower down than that.  But he
+did not look what he was not--viz, a gentleman.
+
+"Why, how d'you do, Mr Glover?" blurted out Philip at last.  "Who on
+earth would have thought of seeing you here?"
+
+"Aha! who'd have thought it, indeed!  But the little girl wouldn't give
+me any peace.  Said you hadn't written to her for so long she didn't
+know what had become of you, and we'd better go and see.  So we left the
+rest of them at St. Swithins and started off, and here we are.  Why,
+where is she?  Edie--where have you got to?"
+
+"All right, dad; here I am," and the owner of the voice emerged from the
+bureau, where she had been arranging about rooms.  "Why Phil, dear, this
+_is_ nice!" she went on, advancing upon him with extended hand and a
+would-be effective blush.
+
+"Ha ha!" chuckled the old man.  "She wouldn't give me any peace until I
+brought her here.  Now you'll find plenty to talk about, I'll warrant."
+
+Heavens! this was fearful.  The feelings of a wild bull in a net must be
+placidity itself compared with those of poor Philip on finding himself
+thus cornered and publicly taken possession of.  Every soul in the hotel
+was getting the benefit of these effusive and affectionate greetings,
+for it was just that time before _table d'hote_ when everybody was
+coming in to change, and every head was more or less turned for a glance
+at the new-comers as its owner passed by.  Why Alma herself, who was
+standing talking to some other ladies in the hall, was well within
+hearing!  What would she think?  What sort of construction would she put
+upon all the affection wherewith these people were bespattering him?
+Heavens! what would she think?
+
+Ha! there was Fordham.  Capital!  He would plant the new arrivals upon
+him.
+
+"Hullo, Fordham!" he sung out, as his friend at that moment passed
+through the hall.  "I want to introduce you to Mr Glover here; just
+arrived, you know.  Miss Glover--Mr Fordham.  Knows the country like a
+book," he went on, desperately.
+
+But this manoeuvre, so far from helping him had precisely the opposite
+effect; for the old man, with effusive cordiality, at once buttonholed
+Fordham, leaving the girl free to take possession of Phil.
+
+Well, what then?  To all appearances the situation was the very reverse
+of an unenviable one--indeed, more than one man passing through the hall
+at the time looked upon the ill-starred Philip with eyes of downright
+envy as he grumbled to himself, "Is that conceited ass Orlebar going to
+monopolise every pretty girl who comes near the place?"  Poor Phil! how
+willingly he would have yielded up this one to the attentions of each
+and all who might choose to offer them.
+
+In one particular they were right.  Edith Glover was a very pretty girl.
+She had large blue eyes, and profuse brown hair falling in a natural
+wavy fringe around her brows.  She had a clear complexion, regular
+features, and a bright, laughing expression.  She was of medium height,
+had a good figure, and dressed well.  But with all these advantages she
+lacked one thing, in common with her father, and that was the hallmark
+of birth.  There was no mistake about it.  With all her engaging
+prettiness and tasteful attire there was this one thing painfully,
+obviously lacking.  She would have looked far more in keeping--and
+therefore possibly more attractive--in the cap, apron, and print dress
+of a housemaid, and her speech would have agreed thereto.
+
+It is an accepted saying that the letter "h" constitutes a crucial
+shibboleth to the individual of dubious birth and British nationality;
+but there is another letter to which this applies with almost equal
+force, and that is the letter "a".  Now the first letter of the alphabet
+as enunciated by Edith Glover sounded uncommonly like the ninth--to wit,
+the letter "i."
+
+"We will sit together at table, dear, of course," she murmured, sweetly,
+with a killing glance into his eyes.
+
+"Um--ah--er," mumbled Philip.  "Awful sorry, but afraid our end of the
+table's full up--in fact, crowded."
+
+"Oh, but you can come down to ours."
+
+"Er--hardly.  You see I'm with some people--very jolly party--came up
+here together.  Can't desert them, don't you know."
+
+Edith Glover had a temper, but now she judiciously dropped her eyes so
+that he should not see the expression which had come into them.
+
+"Oh, well," she said, with a little pout, and heaving up an attempt at a
+sob for the occasion; "of course, if you prefer to be with other people,
+when I have made Pa bring me all this way because I couldn't bear to be
+away from you any longer, I--I--" And the heave became very much more
+pronounced.
+
+"This is gaudy!" thought Philip to himself.  "They have been pretty well
+giving me away for the benefit of the whole hotel already, and now she
+is going to scare up a scene _pro bono publico_.  A scene, by Jove!" he
+reflected, in dismay.  And then, at this additional indication of her
+want of breeding, he felt hardened.  Fancy Alma, for instance, making
+such an exhibition of her feelings in public! and this idea brought with
+it a dire foreboding--what if he were to undergo some private but
+unmistakable indication of Alma's feelings, as a sequel to this
+abominable _contretemps_!
+
+Just then the dinner-bell rang.
+
+"There goes the second bell, and I'm still in my nailed boots and
+climbing gear.  We left at six this morning, you know, to go up to the
+Mountet Hut, and are only just back," he added, with forced gaiety and
+unconcern.  "I must really go and change.  Sha'n't be down till dinner
+is half over as it is."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Friends of yours, those new arrivals, aren't they, Philip?" said the
+General, soon after the latter had taken his seat.
+
+"They are some people I used to know down at Henley.  They had a big
+riverside place there, and gave dances."
+
+"What a pretty girl!" said Mrs Wyatt, putting up her glasses to look
+over at the objects under discussion, who were seated at another table
+at the further end of the room.  "Isn't she, Mr Fordham?"
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not a competent judge on that point," was the reply.
+
+"Mr Fordham won't be betrayed into saying anything in favour of any of
+us," said Alma, maliciously.
+
+Poor Philip was in a state of mind which even his worst enemy might have
+commiserated.  He had, with quick instinct, grasped the certainty that
+all was changed.  There was a touch of frostiness in Alma's manner that
+betokened this only too plainly.  Her serenity was absolutely unruffled,
+she was as brightly conversational as ever; but there was just that in
+her manner towards himself, imperceptible however to others, which told
+him only too unmistakably that the barrier was reared between them.  Was
+she not within earshot during the horrible obtrusive suddenness of this
+most inopportune meeting!  Her woman's wit had been prompt to put two
+and two together.  He was done for.
+
+Still he would not give up without a struggle.  He would tell her all.
+She might see extenuating circumstances, and then--oh, he hardly dared
+think of a contingency so entrancing.  Now was the time.  He would dodge
+those hateful Glovers somehow, and get her to come out with him for that
+short twilight stroll which they two, in common with nearly everybody in
+the hotel, were in the habit of taking almost every night after _table
+d'hote_.
+
+"Which way shall we go to-night, Alma?" he said softly, as she rose from
+the table.
+
+She paused and turned her glance upon him, her eyes full on his.
+
+"Don't you think you ought to go and do the civil to your--friends?  I
+do," she said.  And without another word she left him--left him quickly
+and decisively, her very action, her manner of performing it, laying
+upon him a curt prohibition to follow.
+
+Philip, however, did not obey her injunction as regarded the Glovers.
+Avoiding those ill-omened persons, he stole away into the darkness,
+choosing the most hilly, and therefore, to after-dinner promenaders,
+unfrequented way.  There, in company with his pipe and his thoughts, he
+wandered, and the latter were very bitter.  He saw through the situation
+only too clearly.  There was no exaggerating the magnitude of the
+disaster.  The Glovers were not the sort of people to hide their
+grievance under a bushel.  Every one in the hotel would promptly be made
+free of it.  Alma would never forgive him for putting upon her--however
+unintentionally--the most unpardonable slight of all--a public slight.
+No.  It was the one unpardonable sin.  She would never forgive it.
+
+His estimate of the Glovers proved singularly accurate.  Stung by his
+defection, his marked neglect of her--seeing, moreover, with woman's
+instinct the real lay of the land--the fair Edith had by no means buried
+the secret of her relationship towards Philip within her own breast.
+Before bedtime it was whispered all over the hotel that the pretty girl
+who had arrived that evening was no other than his _fiancee_, whom he
+had heartlessly jilted in favour of Miss Wyatt.
+
+No; assuredly this was not a thing that Alma was likely to forgive.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+TWO HEADS BETTER THAN ONE.
+
+"Fordham, old man, I'm in a devil of a mess," announced Philip,
+dolefully, bursting into his friend's room the following morning while
+the latter was shaving.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Sir Philip Orlebar as is to be," returned
+Fordham, who was in an abominably bad humour, pausing with his razor
+arrested.  "You'll be the death of me long before you arrive at that
+dignity unless you get out of a certain vile habit of crashing in upon a
+man during such critical moments as this.  Do you think I've no nerves?"
+
+"Well, I certainly did think so."
+
+"So it seems.  But I have.  So would you have if you had been expected
+to sleep beneath two parsons pounding about overhead in nailed boots
+half the night, and starting again at four o'clock this morning.  The
+noisiest people in their rooms in these ramshackle hotels are invariably
+parsons and women; I imagine because the first are supposed to be
+professionally unselfish and the second traditionally so."
+
+"How do you know they were parsons?" said Philip.  "Sent up the _femme
+de chambre_ to ask them politely to take their boots off.  She came back
+grinning, `_Ce sont deux pasteurs anglais, M'sieu, qui viennent de
+passer le Trift-joch_.'  Well, the avalanche that failed to engulph them
+was an avalanche in the wrong place, decidedly.  I might just as well
+not have sent up; for though I'm not a sufficiently impartial witness to
+assert that they made more row thereafter, I'm fully prepared to swear
+that they didn't make any less."
+
+"H'm!  But I say, Fordham.  I was saying, I'm in the very devil's own
+mess."
+
+"That is not infrequently the case, the extent of my acquaintance with
+you warrants me in asserting.  May I ask the nature of it this time?"
+
+"I've had a devil of a row with old Glover."
+
+"The British merchant?  Already?  And the day so young!  What, may I
+inquire, led to so decided a difference of opinion?  Had you been
+discussing politics, or a rise in sugar?"
+
+"Don't chaff, Fordham.  It's no laughing matter to me.  He says his
+daughter hasn't had a wink of sleep all night."
+
+"No more has he, I should say, since he looses his combative instincts
+thus early.  No more have I--thanks to the nailed boots of the gospel--
+grinders aforesaid.  Well, the only thing I can suggest is that he
+should send down to Sierre and get her a sleeping draught."
+
+"He says she has lain awake all night, and is quite ill, and it's
+entirely my doing."
+
+"Ah!  I begin to see.  Her room is underneath yours, I take it.  Well, I
+always said you had rather a heavy hoof."
+
+"Fordham, do be serious.  Don't you see, man?  You were there when they
+arrived yesterday--and er--er--he swears he'll bring an action for
+breach of promise against me?  Now do you see?"
+
+"And he's just the sort of animal who would do it too," rejoined the
+other coolly, spreading a fresh lather upon his chin.
+
+"Well, that's not all--nor even the worst of it.  I'm in a proper sort
+of hole, I can tell you," said poor Phil, despairingly dropping into a
+chair and lighting up a Vevey cheroot.
+
+"Wait a minute, Phil," said Fordham, turning with his razor in mid-air.
+"There's a time for all things and, it might be added, a place.  Now
+I've a strong suspicion that the partition walls between these rooms are
+unconscionably thin, and that being so we had better postpone our
+council of war until we have got outside of our toast and coffee, and
+then adjourn with pipes to some sequestered spot where undisturbed we
+can concert plans for the discomfiture of the enemy.  But, look here,
+you must pull yourself together.  You are looking a cross between a
+scarecrow and a galvanised skull.  Man alive, you'll furnish sport to
+all the women in the house if they see you going about like this."
+
+"What a good chap you are, Fordham," said poor Philip, gratefully.  He
+was looking wretchedly pulled down and haggard, as the other had said,
+for he had had very little sleep.  No one would have recognised the
+bright, handsome sunny face of yesterday.  He looked a dozen years
+older.  Even Alma, burning with outraged pride, must have pitied him.
+
+But the Wyatts were not at table when the two came down, which was
+perhaps just as well.  Old Glover was, but his daughter's place was
+vacant.  He frowned magnificently at Philip, and nodded in a stiff and
+patronising way to Fordham as they came in.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Now Phil," began Fordham, as having strolled up the meadow path behind
+the hotel, they sat down among a cluster of rocks and began to smoke,
+"Now Phil, we can talk to our heart's content.  What a chap you are.
+You were a semi-lunatic for the space of a week about one `skirt,' and
+no sooner is that put right than another `skirt' sails in unexpectedly
+and upsets the coach again."
+
+"Upsets it, indeed!" muttered poor Phil.
+
+"As I understand the case," went on Fordham, "and it's far from an
+uncommon one, you neglected to throw away your dirty water before you
+got your clean.  Consequently the former has overlapped the latter and
+damaged it effectually.  Do you follow me?"
+
+Philip nodded.
+
+"Well now, what do you want me to do?"
+
+"I want you to advise me."
+
+"H'm!  The case stands thus.  The appearance upon the scene of Number 1
+has sheered Number 2 off in a deadly huff, which, under the
+circumstances, it was bound to do.  Secondly, the British merchant and
+his offspring threaten to make themselves particularly disagreeable.
+Those are the two points upon which we must go to work."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well.  Now to begin with the first point.  Have you squarely
+explained the whole affair to Miss Wyatt?"
+
+"Don't I wish she'd give me the chance!" was the vehement reply.
+
+"You must make the chance--by hook or by crook.  That's all I've got to
+say.  It is a matter between her and you exclusively, and one in which
+you must fight entirely to your own hand.  Now as to the other, the--
+er--Glover side of the difficulty.  Quite sure you wouldn't have the
+girl at any price?"
+
+"Dead certain."
+
+"That's so, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"Well, I think you're right.  I wouldn't myself--if I were you, I mean.
+How did you manage to get in tow with her?"
+
+"Oh, it was just after that last cruise of ours, about six months ago,"
+said Philip, in the disgusted tone of a man who realises that he has
+made a fool of himself and is called upon to face the consequences of
+his folly.  "I ran down to old Glover's place with some other fellows to
+a dance, and--well--Edith and I got rather thick.  Drifted into it, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Used to go up the river a good bit, eh?  Picnic and spoon on the
+eyots--and all that sort of thing?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That river's the very devil for getting fellows into messes of this
+kind.  The rushes and the whispering-trees and the soft murmur of the
+water, don't you know--_and_ the champagne in the hamper--all this I
+suppose combines to work it.  Now, did you ever propose to her in
+definite terms?"
+
+"N-no.  Once it struck me she thought I had.  It was one evening at a
+dance.  We were sitting out in a corner of the lawn--and the river and
+the moonlight on the water--"
+
+"_And_ the champagne," murmured Fordham.  "No; it was sparkling
+Burgundy.  But don't chaff, old man.  Well, I hadn't really said
+anything definite.  But, you know, a fellow _is_ apt to make rather a
+fool of himself on such occasions, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh, very.  Now how long was this--this evening when you hadn't really
+said anything definite--before we came abroad together?"
+
+"About a month or six weeks."
+
+"And of course you have corresponded ever since?"
+
+"Up till the time I--er--you know--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I quite understand.  Well now, have you said--written,
+rather--anything definite in the course of that correspondence?"
+
+"N-no.  I don't think I can have."
+
+"Would you mind allowing me to judge?"
+
+"I didn't keep copies of the letters--Oh, I see.  Hers you mean!  Hang
+it, old man, I--er--don't think that would be quite fair to her."
+
+"Just as you please," was the perfectly unruffled rejoinder.  "By the
+way, you didn't perform the pleasing ceremony commonly known as
+`speaking to papa,' did you?"
+
+"Not I," said Philip, with alacrity.
+
+"Yet he came here prepared to give you his blessing--and gave it, too,
+in the most all-embracing fashion?"
+
+"_That's_ it!  That's just it!" cried Philip, savagely.  "It's a put-up
+job!  Yet what on earth could they want to hook me for?  The dear old
+governor has got years and years to go on yet; and even then he won't
+cut up for much, for he's as poor as Job.  Still it looks like a clear
+case of `standing in.'"
+
+"I think it does.  As for the motive, the British merchant may have had
+a fancy to be able to talk about `My daughter, Lady Orlebar--ah!' and
+added to that you're a personable dog enough, Phil.  He ought to be able
+to supply the funds to counterbalance the title."
+
+"There the motive breaks down," quickly interrupted the other.
+"Although he cuts great splashes with his entertainments, and is rolling
+in money, he has the reputation of being the most close-fisted screw
+extant."
+
+"Is that so?  Ah! now I begin to see a little light.  You don't think
+he'd come down with a fat settlement?"
+
+"Not the ghost of a chance of it."
+
+"Good.  I think we may defeat him on that count.  But let us again be
+certain on this head.  You are sure you wouldn't take the girl at any
+price--not if he offers to settle fifty thousand?"
+
+"Not if he offered to settle five hundred thousand.  But don't have any
+misgivings on that score.  He won't come down with five, you'll see."
+
+"Good again," said Fordham.  "Now, are there any other daughters?"
+
+"Three."
+
+"Sons?"
+
+"Three."
+
+"Seven in the family.  Right.  Now, Phil, your line is this.  You must
+put a prohibitive price upon yourself.  Tell him straight that you are
+not going to wreck all your prospects in life for a girl you don't
+really care two straws about, and never will, and bring yourself down to
+beggary into the bargain.  You can defeat him on the question of
+settlements--if you are only firm enough."
+
+"But isn't that rather a shady standpoint to take up--eh, Fordham?" said
+Phil, dubiously.  "Not quite one's form--eh?"
+
+Fordham's dark brows came nearer together, and there was a sneer in the
+black, piercing eyes which were fixed on the younger man's face.
+
+"My dear Phil," he replied, "if there is a phase of humanity in this
+latter-day world which invariably lays itself out to be kicked, hustled,
+jumped upon, bested all round, it is represented by the man whose `form'
+rises up to bar him fighting the devil with fire.  `Poor Satan!' say
+such fellows as yourself.  `It really isn't fair!'  So, by way of
+equalising the chances, you surrender at discretion, and the enemy of
+mankind dances upon you _ad lib_.  Here you have got to fight the devil
+with fire, and you won't do it, because, forsooth, it is `not quite
+one's form.'  You are simply the victim of a `plant'--a not very
+cunningly baited trap--and yet you are going to let the devil--who for
+present purposes may be taken to mean the paternal Glover--bind you hand
+and foot for all time.  Could ever lunacy be more complete--more
+hopeless?"
+
+"Well, what shall I tell him?" said Philip, desperately.
+
+"Tell him, in unequivocal terms, to go hang."
+
+For a few moments Philip said nothing.  He sat watching the smoke
+wreaths from his pipe curling up in blue circles upon the clear mountain
+air, a puzzled and helpless expression clouding his features.  Then at
+last:
+
+"I say, Fordham."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wish--er--I wish, old chap, you'd pull me through this affair.  I
+mean--er--I wish you'd interview old Glover for me.  You're so
+cool-headed, and I--well, I get in a rage and lose my nut.  Why, this
+morning the old sinner and I were as nearly as possible coming to
+fisticuffs.  We shouted at and damned each other, but what we said I
+haven't the faintest recollection."
+
+"I don't care to undertake anything of the kind, Phil, and so I tell you
+candidly," answered Fordham.
+
+"Why not, old chap?" was the doleful rejoinder.
+
+"Because it is dead in the teeth of every ruling principle of my life to
+poke my nose into what doesn't concern me.  You may say I have already
+done so in advising you at all.  So I have, and to that extent I plead
+guilty to having been inconsistent.  But two wrongs don't make a right,
+which we may take to mean that I don't see why I should violate my
+principles still further.  Were I to undertake what you want me to, old
+Glover would begin by asking what the devil business it was of mine,
+anyhow.  And the worst of it is, he would be right--quite right."
+
+"Not of necessity," rejoined Philip, eagerly.  "Surely you have a right
+to act for a friend; and for all he knows you may be my legal adviser.
+I believe you must have been a lawyer once, you're so devilish
+coldblooded and logical.  Now, say you'll do it."
+
+Fordham's dark brows met, and he smoked silently for a few minutes.
+"Coldblooded--logical," had said this careless youngster, who was merely
+paltering with the very outskirts of the grim web of circumstances which
+go to make up the tragedies--and travesties--of the serious side of
+life.  "Coldblooded" was he now pronounced; yet could he remember when
+his blood ran hot, surging and seething like the boiling and bubbling
+pitch.  Now it lay still within his veins, cool and acrid as vinegar.
+
+"And if I don't bring it off all right, or as you think all right,
+you'll turn round and abuse me," he said at last.
+
+"You needn't be in the least afraid of that," answered Phil.  "I'll give
+you a free hand to act as you think right."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Now you're talking, as they say in the States.  Well, Phil, I'll do
+what I can for you.  But mind, you must leave everything in my hands
+unreservedly.  None of your insane scruples about `form,' or anything of
+that kind.  Do you agree to this?"
+
+"I do, unreservedly."
+
+"Well, it's dead contrary to my principles, as I told you before; but
+for this once I'll throw judgment overboard, especially as it is to turn
+the flank of an infernal scheming, crafty female creature," added this
+misogynist, an acrid ring coming into his tone.  "And now, Phil, you had
+better not go back to the hotel.  Start off from here and walk somewhere
+till lunch-time--if you could make it till dinner-time, all the better.
+By then I shall have knocked what change I can out of the exasperated
+but knowing British parent."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+FIGHTING THE DEVIL WITH FIRE.
+
+Philip was only too ready to follow his friend's advice, and accordingly
+started away there and then--whither he did not care.  His only thought
+was to get through the day somehow.
+
+He had no wish to encounter old Glover again.  In saying that he had had
+a considerable row with that worthy he had in no wise overstated
+matters.  His marked abstention from the fair Edith's society the
+previous evening had been quite sufficient, and the old man had got up
+with the fixed determination of having it out with the defaulting swain,
+and withal giving the latter a very large piece of his mind.  This was
+all very well.  But old Glover, not being a gentleman himself, did not
+in the very least understand how to deal with gentlemen, and his method
+of handling his grievance was so much that of the triumphant trickster
+who has bested his neighbour over a bargain that it revolted Philip,
+unconsciously strengthening a resolve which was forming in his mind to
+avoid an alliance with connections of this sort at all costs and
+hazards.
+
+Now, as he made his way up the mountain path with the quick elastic step
+of perfect physical condition, Philip began to feel more sanguine.
+Fordham would get him out of the mess somehow.  From where he was he
+could make out two figures strolling out from the hotel.  He had no
+glasses with him, but felt sure they were Fordham and old Glover.  They
+were at it already.  Fordham was a wonderful fellow, and could do
+anything if he chose.  It would not be surprising if he were to succeed
+in getting rid of the obnoxious Glovers altogether, and he--Philip--were
+to find the field clear again when he returned that evening.  He felt
+quite hopeful.
+
+Not for long, however.  For he remembered there was another horn to the
+dilemma.  He might free himself from the awkward position in which
+circumstances and his own thoughtlessness had combined to land him; but
+the new sweet relationship with Alma--ah! that was a thing of the past,
+and this he recognised with a keen unerring instinct hardly to be looked
+for in his easy-going nature.  This he recognised with a despairing
+pang, and again his heart was heavy as lead within him.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The first person Fordham encountered on returning to the hotel was old
+Glover himself.  The latter was seated on a pile of saw-planks stacked
+against a chalet, smoking the pipe of solitude and sweet and bitter
+fancies--probably the latter, if the expression of his countenance was
+aught to go by.  So far from being prepared to resent his intervention,
+there was an eager look in the old man's eyes as he perceived Fordham,
+which was by no means lost upon that astute reader of human nature.
+
+"Er--er--Mr Fordham?" he called out, the other having passed him with a
+commonplace remark _in re_ the weather.
+
+Fordham turned with just a gleam of well-feigned astonishment in his
+face.
+
+"Ar--Mr Fordham," went on old Glover now more eagerly, "would you--ar--
+mind accompanying me for a short stroll?  I should--ar--like to have a
+few words with you."
+
+"Certainly," was the reply, and an additional touch was thrown into the
+well-feigned astonishment.  "I am quite at your disposal.  Doing nothing
+this morning.  We might stroll along the level towards the head of the
+valley."
+
+The other assented with alacrity, and they started, Fordham keeping the
+conversation to strict commonplace until they had got clear of the
+clusters of chalets lining the path on either side.  Then the valley
+opened out into wide, level meadows, and, crossing the log bridge over
+the swirling, rushing mountain torrent, Fordham led the way into one of
+these.
+
+"Er--ar"--began old Glover, who had with difficulty restrained his
+eagerness up till now, "have you, may I ask, known young Orlebar for a
+considerable length of time?"
+
+"A goodish while."
+
+"Do you--ar--considar--that you know him well--er--I may say
+intimately?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Er--now, Mr Fordham--you will--ar--excuse the question, I'm sure.
+Have you always found him--ar--straightforward?"
+
+"Invariably.  Too much so, in fact, for his own interests."
+
+"Ar--r!"  The representative of British commerce drew himself up with a
+sidelong stare at his neighbour.  This was a quality quite outside his
+comprehension.  He began to suspect the other was making game of him.
+The expanse of waistcoat swelled, and the folds of a truly magnificent
+pomposity deepened around its wearer as he went on.  "Ar--I am sorry I
+cannot agree with you, Mr--ar--Fordham--very sorry indeed.  In his
+dealings with me--with me and mine--young Orlebar has, I regret to say,
+shown the--ar--very reverse of straightforwardness.  Are you aware, sir,
+that he is engaged to my daughter?"
+
+"I can't say I am."
+
+The old man halted, turned round upon Fordham, and looked him full in
+the face as though he could hardly believe in his own sense of hearing.
+
+"I--ar--beg your pardon, Mr--ar--Fordham.  Did I--ar--understand you to
+say you were not aware of it?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr Glover.  I intended you to understand precisely that."
+
+Old Glover was nonplussed.  He began to feel small and at a decided
+disadvantage, a most unwonted feeling with him.  He stared wonderingly,
+inquiringly, distrustfully, into the dark, saturnine visage confronting
+him, but could read nothing there.
+
+"It is an odd thing that Phil should not have informed me of the fact,"
+went on Fordham.  "He is usually openness itself--indeed, too much so,
+as I said just now.  Wears his heart on his sleeve, I always tell him.
+However, I shall have to congratulate him the next time I see him.  By
+the way, I suppose his father is delighted?  Philip is an only son, you
+know."
+
+Nothing could be more innocent than Fordham's tone, nothing more
+unsuspecting than the look of half-amused wonder with which he received
+the intelligence.  But his keen perception noted the disconcerted wave
+which passed over his interlocutor's face at this allusion to Sir
+Francis Orlebar.
+
+"Fathers have different ways of taking news of that kind," he continued,
+innocently.  "Now, partly as a student of character, partly by reason of
+some slight acquaintance with Sir Francis himself, I am curious to know
+how he took the news of his son's engagement.  How did he?"
+
+The question was put with blunt and cruel directness.  No slippery
+commercial instincts could avail here.  It must be answered.  Poor old
+Glover felt unprecedentedly small in the hands of his wily opponent.
+Those piercing dark eyes penetrated his poor coating of pomposity as a
+lance-head might penetrate the rind of a pumpkin.
+
+"I am not aware how Sir Francis took the news," he answered, stiffly.
+
+"He was informed, of course?" pursued Fordham, remorselessly.  "Really--
+ar--Mr Fordham.  Your tone is--ar--very strange.  I am at a loss to--
+ar--"
+
+"Oh, a thousand pardons.  I merely asked the question because I thought
+I understood you to say that Philip was engaged to your daughter.  If I
+was mistaken--But I quite understand.  Of course the affair is no
+business of mine.  At the same time allow me to remind you, Mr Glover,
+that the topic was broached by yourself, and, moreover, that you
+requested me to accompany you for a stroll with that object.  It is
+naturally of far greater interest to you than to me, but if it is
+distasteful to you, we will drop it at once.  So let us talk of
+something more congenial."
+
+His manner was the perfection of ingenuous indifference.  Thorough cynic
+as he was, Fordham was enjoying the embarrassment of this inflated old
+schemer, who he well knew had not brought him thus far in order to "drop
+the subject" at any such early stage of the conversation.  And the next
+words proved it.
+
+"You were not mistaken, sir.  He is engaged to my daughter.  And--ar--
+when you come to look at the matter in its right light, Mr Fordham, you
+will, I am sure, agree with me that he has acted with very great want of
+straightforwardness."
+
+"Perhaps.  But you know, Mr Glover, Philip is an only son.  It does, I
+confess, appear strange to me that no reference should have been made to
+his father at the time he asked for your consent to the engagement.  He
+did ask for it, I suppose?"
+
+"Hang it, sir!" blared forth the other, goaded to fury by his own
+helpless flounderings, which only served to entangle him deeper and
+deeper within the net.  "Hang it, sir!  You know as well as I do that in
+these days young people don't trouble their heads about their fathers in
+matters of this kind.  They take it all into their own hands--arrange it
+between themselves."
+
+The expression of astonished disapproval upon Fordham's face as he
+received this announcement would have delighted the heart of the most
+confirmed stickler for the old-fashioned proprieties.
+
+"Do they?  I was not aware of it," he said, "Pardon my ignorance, but I
+still can't help thinking that, whatever may be the general rule, for
+the only son of a man of Sir Francis Orlebar's position to be allowed to
+drift into a tacit engagement without consulting either the young lady's
+father or his own, is--pardon me again--somewhat of an odd proceeding."
+
+"What is a beggarly baronet?" cried old Glover, the coarse huckstering
+blood showing through the veneer of a would-be stately pomposity in his
+blind rage at finding himself outwitted at every point.  "Pooh!  I could
+buy up a dozen of them."
+
+"True.  I was not thinking so much, though, about what was due to a
+`beggarly baronet' as to a gentleman and the son of a gentleman.
+However," he resumed, after a pause just perceptible enough to carry
+that last shaft home, "let us now be frank with each other--talk as men
+of the world, in fact.  I presume you had some object in seeking this
+interview with me, Mr Glover?"
+
+Their stroll had brought them to a large rock which at some period more
+or less remote had fallen from above and embedded itself in the meadow.
+In the shade formed by this Fordham proposed that they should sit down.
+A beetling cliff sheered up behind to a great height, but in front and
+around the approaches to the place were open.
+
+"You are right in your surmise, Mr--ar--Fordham.  As an intimate friend
+of young Orlebar, a man, I believe, considerably older than himself, it
+occurred to me that you would be--ar--likely to have some influence over
+him--and--ar--might exert that influence towards inducing him to do what
+is right."
+
+"You may command any influence I may possess in that direction, Mr
+Glover," said Fordham, suavely, though inwardly chuckling over the cool
+impudence of the proposal and the opacity of the mind which could
+propound it.
+
+"I was sure of it--sure of it," reiterated the other, much mollified at
+the prospect of so welcome an alliance.  "As I said before, he is not
+behaving straightforwardly, and you will--ar--agree with me.  Well, now,
+some months ago it was that he came first to my place.  I've got a
+little crib down at Henley, you know, Mr Fordham--shall be happy to see
+you there if you are returning to England--very happy.  Well, we had
+plenty of fun going on--parties and picnics and rowing and all that.
+I'm a man that likes to see young folks enjoying themselves.  I don't
+stint them--not I.  Let them enjoy themselves when they are young, say
+I.  Don't you agree with me?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," murmured Fordham.
+
+"Well, among other young fellows who came sparking around was this young
+Orlebar," went on old Glover, forgetting his stilted pomposity in the
+thread of his narrative.  "I was always glad to see him--ask him if I
+wasn't.  Soon it seemed to me that he was taking a fancy to my Edie.
+She's my eldest, you know, as good a girl as ever was.  She's a pretty
+girl, too, and looks at home anywhere--in the Park, or wherever she may
+be.  Now doesn't she?"
+
+"I quite agree with you on the subject of Miss Glover's attractions,"
+said Fordham, gravely.  "She would, as you say, look thoroughly at home
+in the Park--with a perambulator and a soldier," he added to himself.
+
+"All day and every day he made some excuse or other to run down.  He'd
+take her out on the river by the hour, sit about the garden with her, be
+sending her flowers and things and all that.  If that don't mean
+intentions, I'd like to know what does.  Well, I didn't feel called upon
+to step in.  I don't believe in interfering with young folks'
+inclinations.  I liked the young fellow--we all did--and it seemed he
+was old enough to know his own mind.  This went on for some time--some
+months.  Then suddenly we heard he'd gone abroad, and from that day on
+heard no more about him by word or line.  My poor Edie felt it
+dreadfully.  She didn't say anything at first, nor for a long time, and
+at last I got it all out of her.  Now, that isn't the way a girl should
+be treated, is it, Mr Fordham?  If you had daughters of your own you
+would not like to see them treated like that, would you?"
+
+"Certainly not.  But pray go on--I am interested."
+
+He was--but in reading _between the lines_ of this very ingenuous and
+pathetic tale of base and black hearted treachery.  To the narrator his
+sympathetic tone and attitude conveyed the liveliest satisfaction, but
+that hoary plutocrat little guessed at what a dismally primitive hour it
+was requisite to rise in order to get the blind side of saturnine
+Richard Fordham.
+
+"I'd taken the girls to the seaside for their summer outing," continued
+the narrator--"a thing they generally go wild with delight over.  But
+poor Edie this time said she hated the sea.  She wanted to go abroad.
+Would I take her abroad?  At first I wouldn't, till she grew quite thin
+and pale.  Then I knew why she wanted to go, and she told me.  If she
+could find him out herself--make up a pleasant little surprise, she
+said--it would all come right.  It would all be as before, and they
+would be as jolly as grigs.  I hadn't the heart to refuse her, and so we
+came.  We found out where young Orlebar was, and dropped down on him
+with the pleasant little surprise we'd planned.  But--it didn't seem a
+pleasant surprise at all."
+
+"No, by Jove, it didn't!" said the listener to himself, putting up his
+hand to hide a sardonic grin.
+
+"You saw that it didn't.  You saw how he behaved.  Didn't seem at all
+glad to see us, hardly spoke to us.  And that girl had been breaking her
+heart about him--yes, breaking her heart--and he's never been near her
+since the moment she arrived.  But I see how it is--he's got another
+string to his bow.  That high and mighty young woman that was sitting
+near you--Miss--what's her name?--Miss Wyatt, isn't it?  Well--"
+
+"Excuse me if I remind you, Mr Glover, that among ourselves it is not
+usual to drag ladies' names into other people's differences in that
+free-and-easy sort of fashion," said Fordham, stiffly, though inwardly
+convulsed with mirth at the idea of finding himself, of all people,
+taking up the cudgels on behalf of one of the detested sex.
+
+"Eh--what?  Why, they told me he was engaged to her."
+
+"Who told you he was?"
+
+"Why, let me see--some of the people last night.  I don't quite
+recollect which of them.  But perhaps you can tell me for certain.  Is
+he?"
+
+"Not that I am aware of."
+
+"Not--eh?" with a very distrustful look into Fordham's face, and in no
+wise convinced; for to this representative of British commerce a man was
+bound to be lying, provided any adequate motive existed for mendacity,
+and here such motive undoubtedly did exist.  "Well, they told me the
+pair of them were never apart, out together all day, sitting together
+all the evening--never apart, except at bedtime."
+
+"Pooh! that means nothing.  Here you see, and in places like this,
+society is a pretty happy-go-lucky assortment, and the harmonious
+elements gravitate towards each other.  And while we are on this
+subject, Mr Glover, I may as well remind you that Philip is young, a
+great favourite with women, and consequently a devil of a fellow to
+flirt.  He's always over head and ears in some flirtation or other--
+always has been ever since I've known him.  But he means nothing by it,
+and it always comes to nothing."
+
+"Upon my word, Mr--ar--Fordham," replied the other, again bristling up
+with pomposity, "you seem to treat this matter with strange--ar--levity.
+Whatever--ar--_you_ may see fit to call it, _I_ look upon this--ar--
+outrageous trifling with my daughter's feelings as the act of an
+unprincipled scoundrel.  Yes, sir, an unprincipled scoundrel," he added,
+rolling the words, in his delight at having hit upon a good, sounding,
+double-barrelled epithet.  "But what do you want him to do?"
+
+"Well, really--ar--Mr Fordham, that is a strange question to come from
+a man of your--ar--knowledge of the world.  What is the usual--ar--
+outcome of a young man's winning a girl's affection?"
+
+"I am bound in candour to reply that its nature varies.  Further it
+might be as well to approach this matter with caution and common sense.
+You are doubtless aware that Sir Francis Orlebar is not a rich man--for
+a man in his position a decidedly poor one, and Philip has not a
+shilling in the world beyond what his father allows him?  Now if his
+father should disapprove of this--er--engagement--as not having been
+consulted it is extremely likely he will--he may cut off that allowance
+summarily."
+
+"In that case I should be prepared to allow the people--ar--something to
+go on with."
+
+"What do you mean precisely by `something to go on with,' Mr Glover?"
+
+"Well--really now--ar--Mr Fordham.  You must excuse my saying so, but
+you are--ar--I mean this is--"
+
+"Taking a great liberty?  I quite understand," was the perfectly
+unruffled rejoinder.  "But then you must remember this, Mr Glover.  You
+broached the subject.  You called me into consultation, so to say.  You
+asked me to use my influence with Philip in this matter.  I need hardly
+tell you I have no interest in it one way or the other.  We will drop
+the subject altogether if you like."
+
+"I think you mistake me," said the other, hurriedly.  "I did not--ar--
+say the words you were good enough to put into my mouth."
+
+"Well, then, you must allow me, Mr Glover, to keep an eye upon my
+friend's interests.  He is very young, remember, a mere thoughtless boy.
+Now we, as men of the world, are bound to look at everything from a
+practical point of view.  Let us talk plainly then.  How much are you
+prepared to settle in the event of Philip--er--fulfilling the engagement
+into which you say he has entered?"
+
+"I should be, as I said before, prepared to make them a fairly liberal
+allowance," he jerked forth, with the air of a man who has just had a
+tooth drawn and has found the process less painful than he had expected.
+
+But Fordham shook his head.
+
+"The `allowance' system is an unsatisfactory one," he said.  "I have
+known people let into queer quandaries by trusting to it.  Allowances
+may be cut off at the mere caprice of the allower.  Now, don't be
+offended," he added, with the shadow of a smile.  "We agreed to speak
+plainly and as men of the world.  No--the thing must be a _settlement_.
+Now what are you prepared to settle?"
+
+"I think I may say this.  I will settle four hundred a year upon them
+now.  At my death of course--Why what is the matter?  Is that not
+enough?"
+
+The last in an astonished and indignant tone.  For an almost derisive
+shake of the head on the part of the other had cut short his words.
+
+"Most certainly not.  It is, in fact, ridiculous."
+
+"Many a young couple has begun life on less."
+
+"And many a man has ruined his life by beginning on far more.  No.  I
+think my young friend will rate himself at a far higher value than that.
+Why there are shoals of women with six times that income who would jump
+at him."
+
+"And are truth and honour to go for nothing?" spluttered old Glover,
+swelling himself out with virtuous wrath until the expanse of the white
+waistcoat was so tight that you could hear the seams crack.  "Truth and
+honour and good faith--and a sweet girl's broken heart?" he repeated,
+working up a highly effective sniffle.
+
+"My dear sir, you can't run a household, and a milliner, and a
+dressmaker, and a butcher and baker, and a pocket doctor, and a lawyer--
+in fact, an unlimited liability, upon truth and honour; nor can you pay
+the Queen's taxes with a sweet girl's mended heart.  Now, can you?"
+
+"You have a most--ar--peculiar way of putting things, I must say, Mr
+Fordham.  Well, I'll tell you what I'll do--I'll make it five hundred.
+There!"
+
+"You might just as well make it five hundred pence, Mr Glover.  I can't
+advise my friend to throw himself away."
+
+"I consider five hundred a year ample," said old Glover, magisterially
+inserting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his waistcoat.  "If he wants
+more let him work for it.  Let him go into some business."
+
+"Why should he?  He is young, and has the world at his feet.  Why should
+he grind away at some dingy and uncongenial money-grubbing mill just for
+the fun of supporting your, or any other man's, daughter.  It isn't good
+enough, and I tell you so candidly.  And remember this: he has
+everything to lose and nothing to gain by the transaction, and with
+yourselves it is the other way about."
+
+"And what amount would meet your friend's views, Mr Fordham?" was the
+rejoinder, quick spoken, and with cutting irony.
+
+"He will have a position and title to keep up by and by," answered
+Fordham, tranquilly.  "I should say, a capital sum representing three
+thousand a year--not one farthing less."
+
+Old Glover sprang to his feet with a snort and an activity one would
+hardly have credited him with.  He stared wildly at Fordham, gasped for
+breath and snorted again.  Then he spluttered forth.
+
+"I never heard anything so monstrous--such an outrageous piece of
+impertinence in my life."
+
+"But, my dear sir, surely I've put the case plain enough--"
+
+"Don't talk to me any more about it, sir," interrupted the other
+furiously, "I won't hear of such a preposterous suggestion."
+
+"Do I understand that you refuse the condition, then?"
+
+"Most emphatically you may understand that very thing.  Three thousand a
+year--ha--ha!  He must be mad!  But I tell you what it is, sir," he
+blared forth, stung by Fordham's cool and indifferent demeanour.  "That
+young scoundrel--yes--that young scoundrel, I say," with a stamp of the
+foot, "shall be _made_ to fulfil his engagement--shall be made to, I
+say."
+
+"Shall he?  Excuse my reminding you of the old proverb concerning the
+horse which may be taken to the water."
+
+"Sha'n't he!  I'll sue him for breach of promise.  I'll claim such
+swinging damages as never were asked for in a court of law yet.  I'll
+ruin him--yes, I'll ruin him, by God!"
+
+"You may obtain a few hundreds at the outside.  But you said something
+just now about your daughter's heart being broken.  Do you propose to
+heal that fractured organ by exposing the young lady to the jeers of a
+not over particular crowd in a public court, and making her the laughing
+stock of every newspaper reader in the kingdom for the sake of a few
+hundred pounds?"
+
+"That's _my_ business, sir--that's _my_ business," was the savage reply.
+
+"Even then you will have to prove any specific promise at all.  Under
+the circumstances this will be a matter of some difficulty, I imagine.
+Why not think over the terms I have stated?"
+
+"Never, sir I never!  Such unheard-of impudence?"  And he fairly danced
+at the idea.
+
+"Well, then, I've no more to say.  In my opinion a man is a fool who
+ties himself to any woman.  A lion might as well make himself the slave
+of a cat.  But when he is expected to embrace the exhilarating career of
+a mill-horse in order that the dear creature may own a conveniently
+supporting slave--if he does so, I say, he deserves to be hung on sight.
+I shall certainly advise Phil Orlebar not to marry anybody on a cent
+less than three thousand a year, and I believe he will take my advice."
+
+"Very well, sir.  We shall see--we shall see.  And, by the way, Mr--
+ar--Fordham"--and the trade mind of the successful huckster again rose
+to the surface--"you are really a most clever advocate, and I must--ar--
+congratulate you.  But `nothing for nothing,' you know.  Now how much of
+this fabulous income was to have found its way into your pocket if
+obtained?  Commission, you understand."
+
+There was such a lurid look in Fordham's dark face as he quickly rose to
+his feet, that even old Glover, dancing with rage, quailed and stepped
+back a pace or two.
+
+"I must congratulate _you_, Mr Glover, on your good fortune in being an
+_old_ man at this moment.  However," and his tone resumed its normal
+sarcastic ring.  "However, there are no witnesses present so we may as
+well speak our minds to each other.  It is abundantly obvious that you
+have laid yourselves out to hook young Philip Orlebar, and have done it
+deucedly clumsily too--so clumsily, that luckily for himself the bird
+has seen the limed twig in time.  Anyhow, to rush him as you have done,
+and bestow the paternal blessing before it was asked for--in public
+too--is just the way to choke off irrevocably a youngster of his stamp.
+I don't know that there's anything more to be said, except this.  Bring
+your action by all means, but you will find it as hard a matter to prove
+a specific promise, as you will to persuade any jury that it is not a
+clear case of trying to entrap the son of a man of position and superior
+birth."
+
+To convey any idea of old Glover's state as he listened to this
+harangue, would be impossible.  At first he was speechless, and Fordham
+began to think he was on the verge of apoplexy.  Eventually he found his
+tongue, and the great cliff in the background fairly echoed to the sound
+of a volley of strange and gurgling oaths.  Then the full torrent of his
+wrath burst forth.  He would sue the delinquent Phil--would ruin him--
+would sue them both--for conspiracy, libel--what not.  There was
+nothing, in fact, that he would not do--shooting--horse-whipping--every
+form of violence was enumerated.  He should rue the day--every one
+concerned should rue the day, etc, etc.
+
+But Fordham, lighting a fresh pipe, leaned comfortably back against the
+rock, and waited with perfect unconcern until this human boiler should
+have blown off all its steam--or burst--it didn't matter which.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+ON THE SUMMIT.
+
+A narrow apex of solid rock, surrounded by a little cairn of stones and
+four human figures.  And around--what a panorama!  Everywhere rolling
+billowy summits, snowy and hump-like, or rearing up sharp and defined in
+craggy pinnacles--everywhere they rise--north, south, east, or west, the
+eye wanders confused over a vast sea of them.  Below, a mighty array of
+snowfields, great ice rivers flowing silently down between their
+rock-bound walls--divided, separated from each other by stupendous
+ramparts of cliff and snow.  Further down still--far, far beneath the
+region of ice and snow--a confused labyrinth of tortuous valleys, green,
+and sprinkled here and there with clusters of brown specks, haply
+representing a town or village, the faintly glittering star above which
+resolves itself under the lens of the telescope into the metal-sheathed
+cupola of a church tower.  The very immensity of the panorama is
+overwhelming in its bewildering vastness.  The eye, the senses, are
+burdened with it--can hardly take it in.  The whole world seems to lie
+spread out around and beneath, for this apex of rock soaring up in
+mid-air seems in very truth to tower above the rest of the world.  It is
+the summit of the Rothhorn.
+
+The two guides--good representatives of their class--with their
+thoughtful bronzed faces and horny hands, their quasi-uniform attire of
+grey frieze, and black-cock feather adorned hat--are busily engaged in
+examining the contents of a bottle, which they have extracted from its
+snug hiding-place in the heart of the cairn aforesaid--not in the hope
+of finding it to contain liquid refreshment, let us hasten to explain--
+nor are the contents precisely of a solid nature.  They are calculated
+to appeal to the mind rather than the body, for they happen to consist,
+for the most part, of an assortment of visiting cards, bearing the names
+of such climbers as have hitherto gained this altitude, together with
+those of their guides, and any other remarks their owners may have seen
+fit to pencil thereon by way of record.
+
+"Well, Phil?  Think my prescription was good enough, eh?" says Fordham,
+cheerfully.  "Worth while undergoing something to get such a view as
+this?"
+
+But there is no cheerfulness about Philip Orlebar to-day, nor does he
+seem to take any interest in the view.  Sprawling on his back, on the
+hard rock, with his hands behind his head, he is staring up at the sky--
+a phase of observation equally well undertaken at the bottom of a
+valley, thinks his companion.  He merely growls in reply, and relapses
+into his abstraction.
+
+It is the second day after the somewhat stormily concluding interview
+between Fordham and old Glover, but poor Philip's prospects had in no
+wise been improved thereby--indeed, he could not but realise that they
+were hopelessly ruined.  The only result achieved was that of, so to
+say, drawing the teeth of the aggrieved but scheming parent.  That
+crafty plutocrat had been left, in a manner of speaking, on his back.
+He had been met with a crisp, healthy decisiveness, which had left
+nothing to be inferred, whereas had Philip himself constituted the other
+party to the interview, we fear that a tendency to temporise might have
+wedged him into the morass firmer and deeper than ever.  So far Fordham
+had rendered him yeoman's service.
+
+But while released from one horn of the dilemma there was another upon
+which he remained firmly impaled, and whence it was beyond the power of
+any friend to extricate him, and that was a woman's outraged pride.
+Alma Wyatt's self-contained nature was a fearfully proud one, and it had
+been wounded to the quick.  She, to allow herself to be deceived,
+fooled, made a plaything of, a mere pastime to add zest to a summer
+holiday--while all the time this man who had been whispering undying
+love to her was plighted to some one else!  Her face fairly blanched
+with fierce wrath at the thought.  And the insult, the publicity of the
+insult which he had put upon her--for his attentions were, of course,
+thoroughly understood by those around!  No, she would never forgive him;
+never as long as he lived--or even on his deathbed!
+
+Even then the natural fairness of her mind moved her to do him what
+justice she could.  Her own heart told her that in his love for herself
+there was, at any rate, no make-believe.  That, at any rate, was
+genuine.  So much the worse.  It argued weakness in her eyes, an
+unpardonable fault in a man.  And, again--that he had dared to offer her
+a mere place in his affections--to suppose that she would _share_ them
+with anybody, let alone the overdressed, underbred creature to whom he
+was already plighted, and who had come there and claimed him--publicly
+claimed him--under her eyes!  It was an outrage which she could not
+bring herself so much as to think of condoning.
+
+The only consolation was that she had all this time steadfastly refused
+to give him a definite answer--to allow him to give anybody to
+understand in definite terms that she was engaged to him.  But what
+then?  Had she not more than justified by implication such a conclusion
+on the part of those around her!  Even now she was conscious of the
+exchanged glance, the hastily-stifled smile which her appearance evoked
+amid this or that group she happened to be passing, but this she could
+afford to treat with unconcern.  Still the sting penetrated--penetrated
+and rankled.  Her bitterness towards the chief offender hardened to
+white heat.
+
+Nothing had been said between them.  She took care to allow him no
+opportunity for that.  No explanations were needed.  The situation would
+admit of none--absolutely none.  She made no external difference in her
+manner towards him--did not even change her place beside him at table.
+She was too proud to give him or the lookers-on to suppose that she was
+sorely wounded.  But there was a steeliness in her tone when she
+addressed him or answered any remark of his, which conveyed as severe a
+punishment as even she could have wished.  He was miserable.
+
+Then he wrote to her--a piteous and heartbroken letter--explaining,
+protesting, and, above all, entreating.  To ensure her receipt of this
+he slipped it himself beneath her door at a time when it could not
+escape her observation.  As a result she did afford him an opportunity
+of speaking with her alone--an interview of just sufficient duration to
+allow her deliberately to tear his letter into small fragments before
+his face, carefully letting him see that it was unopened.  Not a word
+did she speak.  She could not trust herself.  Her great eyes blazing
+forth such scorn from her pale face seemed to sear and burn into his.
+Then she turned and left him.
+
+After that he was desperate.  Poor Phil, soft-hearted and sensitive,
+felt that he had wrecked his whole life.  He wished he could get up a
+corresponding indignation.  But he could not, not even the fraction of a
+semblance of it.  His heart seemed turned to water--his brain was
+ablaze.  He would relieve his feelings by undertaking some desperate
+feat--thank Heaven, it was always easy to break one's neck.  And on this
+object intent he bounded upstairs three steps at a time in quest of his
+ice-axe.
+
+But Providence, or his own forgetfulness, stood him in good stead that
+time, for the implement he sought was not in his room.  He must have
+left it in Fordham's.  Thither he repaired.
+
+"What's the row, Phil?" said the latter, looking up quickly, taking in
+at the same time the obvious fact that things were not merely wrong with
+his unlucky friend, but very much more so than ever.
+
+"Got my axe here?  I'm just going for a--er--walk."
+
+"Well, you can put it off then, for I've just been scheming out a
+promising climb.  Got two first-rate Zermatt guides, who turned up last
+night and want to go back there.  Everything is ready.  What do you say
+to doing the Rothhorn?  We can start for the Mountet cabin soon after
+lunch; sleep there, get to the top any time by midday, and go down the
+other side to Zermatt.  What do you say?"
+
+"I'm your man, Fordham.  Just the very thing I should like.  And, I
+say--while we are about it--we might stay at Zermatt a few days and do
+the Matterhorn and two or three others, eh?"
+
+Fordham looked at him curiously.
+
+"Just the very thing I was going to suggest," he said, "only I doubted
+whether you'd cotton.  A smart shaking up and a change will do you all
+the good in the world, just now, Phil.  We'll start half an hour after
+lunch--there goes the second bell!--and go up to the hut quietly."
+
+This they had done, and now after an excruciatingly early start from
+that convenient tarrying-place, and about six hours of really difficult
+climbing, of scrambling from rock to rock, worming round "corners"
+overhanging dizzy heights--work that called into full play every muscle
+and braced every nerve--here they were on the summit with the world at
+their feet.
+
+During the actual process of ascent Philip's spirits seemed to return.
+The hard, and, in places, really hazardous, nature of the undertaking
+demanded all his attention, and whether clinging spreadeagled against
+the face of the cliff with no real hold to speak of, or balancing with
+one foot upon a rock projection about the size of a walnut, the other
+dangling over nothing, what time the next man above should secure a
+footing, or skirting gingerly the treacherous line of a curling snow
+cornice, where the thrust of the handle of an ice-axe left a hole
+through which lay viewed the awful depth of space which it overhung--all
+this constituted such a strain upon his faculties as to leave room for
+no other thought.  Though strong and active, and in good training all
+round, Philip, be it remembered, was a novice at this sort of thing,
+consequently he found enough to do in ensuring his own safety, and,
+relatively, that of his companions.  At one point of their progress a
+cloud had come over the mountain, rendering the rocks rimy and slippery,
+throwing out the ridge of ice crowning a sharp _arete_ spectral and
+drear against the misty murk, magnifying the cliffs to gigantic
+proportions in their uncertain and ill-defined outlines.  Gazing down
+upon the snow-flecked rocks far, far beneath, losing themselves in the
+swirling vortex of vapour, Philip felt rather small as he remembered his
+reckless intentions of the day before.  Life, strange to say, seemed
+still worth having; at any rate such a way of ending it as a sudden dash
+through space on to those hideous black and white rocks struck him as
+grim and horrible in the extreme.
+
+But the excitement and physical exertion over, and the summit attained,
+his depression returned.  More over he was tired, for he had hardly
+slept the night before, was, in fact, just dropping off, when roused by
+his indefatigable friend at 2 a.m. to make a pretence at devouring the
+breakfast which the guides were preparing over the weather-beaten stove.
+Now the magnificence and extent of the view was nothing to him.  It
+seemed to lie outside his gaze.  In spirit he was back again at the
+hotel at Zinal.  Was Alma beginning to miss him--to think more kindly of
+him, now that they would not see each other for some days?  Would those
+execrable Glovers have left by the time he returned?  And would all come
+right again?  If only it might!
+
+But if his younger friend's thoughts were far-away down in the valley
+they had come up out of, Fordham's were not.  That saturnine individual
+was, for him, in high spirits.  He had got out an excellent map--in the
+production of such Switzerland stands in the foremost place--and with
+the guides was busy verifying the topographical details of the
+stupendous panorama lying beneath and around.  The cloud which had
+overshadowed them during their ascent had long since vanished, and now
+the sky was blue and clear, and the air like an elixir of life.  The
+only clouds were those from three pipes, for the two guides and Fordham
+were smoking like chimneys.
+
+But they had been an hour on the summit, and the air, though
+exhilarating, was uncommonly chill.  It became time to start downwards.
+The guides were beginning to repack the haversacks.
+
+"Have a pull at this, Phil," said Fordham, handing him a flask.  "And--I
+tell you what it is, man.  You don't know when you're well off."
+
+"Oh, I don't?"
+
+"Rather not.  Look at this," with a comprehensive sweep of the hand.
+"Think what a splendid climb we had to get up here.  Think what a
+splendid one we are going to have to get down, better, in fact, because
+less of sheer fag, and then think how many poor devils there are who
+would give their heads to be here to-day, instead of slaving their
+hearts out all their lives to support some snarling, ungrateful female,
+and a mob of more or less dirty and wholly detestable brats."
+
+"Candidly, my dear chap," returned Philip, "you are becoming somewhat of
+the nature of a bore.  I seem to have heard something very like that
+before--not once, nor yet twice.  The salutary instructions of the
+immortal Mr Barlow, of `Sandford and Merton' fame, shine forth as very
+masterpieces of sparkling pungency when contrasted with your latter-day
+harangues.  I want to know what the devil all this has to do with me."
+
+"You shall!  The gist of the parable is this.  You are thinking all this
+time that Paradise lies at present in the Zinal valley in general, and
+very particularly in the Hotel Durand; whereas in actual fact, so far as
+any semblance of that institution may be said to exist, it lies around
+and before you.  For you are free at present, Phil, free as the air up
+here which is making us shiver, your freedom is as boundless as this
+rolling view of half a continent upon which we look down.  You have the
+world at your feet as literally as we have it before us now."
+
+"Go on, Mr Barlow.  Pray proceed."
+
+"I will.  At present you are thinking what a Paradise every moment of
+life would be if coupled with the charmer down yonder.  You are drawing
+all manner of glowing mental pictures of the bliss of a home illumined
+by her divine presence.  All fustian, my dear fellow, all fustian!
+These superstitions are encouraged by the women from obvious motives.
+But they have no foundation in actual fact.  Now what _I_ am thinking of
+is this.  I am thinking of you in two or three years' time, caged up
+with your charmer in some shabby-genteel suburban semi-detached--for she
+hasn't a shilling of her own, I believe--I am thinking of you, I say,
+the proud possessor of two or three unruly brats--who may or may not be
+kept clean--thus caged up, with a domineering, bad-tempered woman, who
+has parted with her illusions, in proportion as she has contributed
+towards populating this interesting orb.  I am thinking of you toiling
+the day through, week in week out, at some sordid and uncongenial
+drudgery for a mere pittance.  You can never be well off, my dear Phil,
+for to do you justice, you lack the essential qualities of rascality and
+sycophancy which are requisite to the manufacture of the `successful
+man.'  And while your scanty leisure is taken up policing a series of
+ever-changing and refractory domestics, or carrying on epistolary war
+with your landlord, _in re_ his inevitable refusal to observe the most
+obvious provisions of his agreement, your much-needed slumbers will be
+invaded by the piercing and colicky yells of the last overfed cherub,
+and your night devoted to hospital duties in regard to that same.  And
+then when you look back to--this day, for instance--I am not far out in
+asserting that you will catch yourself wondering whether such an
+unparalleled ass is even worth the sixpenny-worth of laudanum which
+should send him in search of the decisive change which may possibly be
+for the better, but can hardly be for the worse.  There--that's the
+other side of the orange, and now you can't say it hasn't been shown
+you."
+
+"That all, Fordham?"
+
+"Nearly.  But think it over, think it over, my dear chap.  The gift of
+freedom is a grand and a glorious one.  Don't throw it away for the
+traditional mess of pottage--a comestible which may or may not be an
+excellent thing, but cannot in my humble judgment maintain its savour if
+subsisted on for the term of one's natural life to the exclusion of all
+other articles of diet."
+
+"I appreciate the point of that highly finished hyperbole--at its true
+valuation," returned Philip, ironically.  "And, look here, Fordham, I
+feel it necessary to amend my former comment.  A man who will undertake
+to deliver such an unconscionably prosy preachment, on the very apex of
+a high Alp, is no longer merely becoming a bore, but has become one--in
+fact _is_ a bore, and that of the first magnitude."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+THE FALLING STONE.
+
+"Peter," said Fordham, interrupting a story over which the guides were
+guffawing among themselves, and which related to a certain rash tourist
+who had undertaken to cross the Gorner glacier alone, giving Herr
+Baedeker as his authority for dispensing with the services of their
+fraternity, and how the adventurous one being eventually missed was duly
+sought for, which search resulted in the discovery of him at the bottom
+of a small crevasse in company with a sprained ankle and a Baedeker, and
+how some of them in resentment of the fancied slur upon their craft had
+grimly suggested that, whereas Baedeker had got him into his present
+quandary, it was only fair that Baedeker should get him out.  "Peter,
+how long shall we take to get down to Zermatt?"
+
+The man thus addressed stared gravely at the sky, then down at the
+valley, then at the surrounding heights, then at his colleague.  The
+latter went through precisely the same formula.  Then he replied--
+
+"If de gentleman"--with a look at Philip--"go down so well as he did
+come up, then we shall get there in about seven or eight hours."
+
+"Right you are, Peter.  You may put it at that," cried Phil, with
+alacrity.  "I'll go down like a chamois, my buck.  We'll be in easy time
+for _table d'hote_."  But the other did not enter into this spirit of
+exuberance.  There was a touch of grimness in his reply, given with
+characteristic deliberation.
+
+"You had better be late for de _table d'hote_ than not get to de _table
+d'hote_ ever again," he said.
+
+"That's a damper, anyway," rejoined Phil.
+
+"It's a well earned one," said Fordham.  "He wants you to realise that
+you can no more afford to be careless going down than you could coming
+up.  And you can't.  You're a heavyish chap, Phil, and there are places
+where if you lose your footing we are extremely likely to be unable to
+hold you up.  And although your return to the valley we have just left
+may be welcome enough, I doubt if it will be adequately so if effected
+in fragmentary form.  So don't imagine you can afford to skip down the
+Rothhorn on one leg, that's all."
+
+Peter Anderledy, the head guide, was a swarthy, thick-set fellow,
+black-bearded, and Italian looking--of apparently about forty, but in
+reality ten years younger.  The other, Conrad Spinner, was about the
+same age but of a different build, being tall and straight, and of the
+Northern type.  His bronzed face was almost as dark as that of his
+colleague, but his hair and moustache were blonde.  The countenances of
+both men wore the sedate almost melancholy expression common to those of
+their calling, but the glance of their eyes was straight and quick.
+Both were addicted to the unlimited consumption of tobacco--also in
+common with those of their craft--a consideration by the way which is
+difficult to reconcile with the popular notion that the soothing weed is
+detrimental, not to say disastrous to the nerves, for if there is one
+class of men which combines the most consummate coolness and courage
+with an unlimited supply of sheer physical endurance and quickness of
+resource, assuredly that class is represented by the qualified Alpine
+guide.
+
+Few Alpine peaks are perpendicular, even on their most precipitous side.
+The Rothhorn, however, is one of these, for its eastern face, if
+anything, slightly overhangs, falling in a magnificent drop of ironstone
+precipice, a depth of about fifteen hundred feet to the glacier beneath.
+Its summit is in reality in two peaks, one slightly lower than the
+other.  The way lies not over but round the lower of these, effecting
+what is termed in mountaineering parlance a "corner."  There is
+excellent hold both for hand and foot, but whereas the climber at the
+moment of rounding this projection can neither see nor be seen by the
+rest of his party, and whereas, further, his body is slightly inclined
+outward over the dizzy height before mentioned, it follows that the
+novice, unless endowed with perfect steadiness of head and nerve, is apt
+to find the position a somewhat trying one.
+
+Now this is just what befell Philip Orlebar.  At the worst point of the
+projection, while hanging on, thus outwardly inclined, curiosity moved
+him to turn his face over his shoulder and look down.  The effect of the
+stupendous height was disastrous.  His hands, gripping the rock
+overhead, began to tremble.  A coldness ran through his legs.  He could
+not move.  He felt that if he did so he must let go.  Nor could he
+withdraw his gaze from that awful abyss.
+
+"What on earth are you doing, Phil?" sung out Fordham, from behind,
+noticing that the rope had ceased moving.
+
+"I'm looking down," came the reply.
+
+"You must not look down.  You must come on," called out the head guide,
+who was leading.
+
+The voices broke the spell.  With an effort he pulled himself together,
+and in a minute stood beside Peter.  The others promptly followed.
+
+"By Jove!  That's a grisly sort of place--eh, Peter?" he said.  "I
+suppose it's the worst of all?"
+
+"No; it is not de vorst--but it _looks_ de vorst," was the slow reply.
+"But--you are all right.  You have only to be careful--very careful."
+
+A slight change had been made in their position on the rope for the
+downward climb.  Peter Anderledy, the head guide, took the lead as
+before.  Philip as the novice, came next--the theory being that as he
+was more likely to make a false step than Fordham, there should be two
+above him to increase the chances of his safety--and indeed that of the
+whole party--for there are two or three places during the first hour's
+descent of the Rothhorn on the Zermatt side where it is difficult to
+believe the rope would save anybody, so steep is the face of the rock,
+so slight the hold.
+
+And now the work began in earnest.  Almost immediately they got into a
+narrow gully--a mere indenture in the surface of the rock, going
+straight down for a considerable distance, and just sufficiently out of
+the perpendicular to enable them to scramble down it slowly and with
+infinite trouble--now sprawling face to the surface, now in ungainly,
+half-squatting attitude, knees almost on a level with the chin.  There
+was hardly any hold as such; the climber preserving his position almost
+entirely by pressure against the snow and ice-encrusted sides of the
+shoot, much as an old-fashioned chimney sweeper in the prosecution of
+his trade.  It was an ugly place, and in the slippery precariousness of
+the position with the whole height of the mountain to fall, was an
+extremely trying one.
+
+"I say, Peter," gasped Philip, as at a peremptory call from above to
+halt he was striving to make good his stability.  "This is a devil of a
+bit, you know.  I suppose if a fellow were to fall he wouldn't stop till
+he got right down on the Durand glacier, eh?"
+
+"Do not talk," came the severe reply.  "Take care of what you are doing.
+And mind de shtones."
+
+None too soon was the warning.  Hardly were the words uttered than a
+large flat stone, as big as a full-sized photograph album--upon which
+Philip had reckoned as a secure support--gave way beneath his feet with
+a startling suddenness that made his blood run cold, and went crashing
+and bounding straight for Peter.  The latter, however, had seen the
+catastrophe almost before it had occurred.  With incredible celerity he
+rolled aside, and, clinging to the face of the rock like a fly on the
+wall, felt the air of the impromptu projectile as it shot by within a
+foot of him and right through what a fraction of a second before had
+been occupied by his body.  Away it went, splitting to fragments, as in
+a series of leaps and bounds it disappeared from sight.
+
+"I say, though, I'm awfully sorry," said Philip, while Peter muttered
+some very bad language--_secreta_--and Fordham sung out a warning to him
+to be more careful and not to trust any stone until he had first well
+tested it.
+
+At length the gully ended and was succeeded by some very pretty rock
+climbing.  The side of the mountain here bore the aspect of being plated
+with huge slabs, and it was mainly upon the projections formed by what
+should have been the "joints" of these, together with cracks running
+across their surface, that the climbers were able to make their way.
+
+"A steeple-jack's work is a fool to this," commented Phil, gazing at the
+two high above him as they descended cautiously and with cool
+deliberation from point to point.
+
+With ordinary care there was no risk here.  Each man securing his
+foothold before the others moved they descended slowly but surely.  It
+was a delightful climb, and, indeed, no form of mountaineering is more
+interesting than rockwork of the kind.  They arrived without accident at
+the point where the way lies through a gap in the high rock ridge, and
+sat down for a short rest as well as to refresh the inner man.
+
+Experienced climbers prescribe the latter process for every two hours.
+Certain it is that such recuperation is exceedingly welcome no less
+often, thanks to the keen air of those high latitudes.  But lack of time
+and the risk of catching a chill precludes anything but the briefest
+halt; wherefore, if the exertion immediate upon feeding resulteth not in
+excruciating indigestion, the subject may congratulate himself on an
+extra well-ordered internal economy.  This poor Philip was destined to
+learn at the hands of that hardest of all preceptresses, experience.
+His normally buoyant spirits had deserted him, and as they resumed their
+way down the rugged rock-face of the mountain he felt altogether bad.
+
+"This Alpineering is a fraud, Fordham," he pronounced.  "I know I've got
+a splitting headache, and feel as if there was a ball of string in my
+diaphragm.  I guess the little grass climbs are good enough for me."
+
+"Look where you are going!  Never mind de talking till we get down," put
+in Peter Anderledy.
+
+The peremptoriness of the rebuke brought Phil's head back from over his
+shoulder with the celerity of a recruit at the word "eyes right!"  Then
+he growled.  But this expression of his dissatisfaction made upon the
+stolid guide not the faintest impression.
+
+"_Herr Gott_!" imprecated the latter presently, with set teeth and a
+savage glance upward as he stopped to listen.  "De shtones are falling."
+
+High above among the cliffs, but slightly in front of their line of
+march, a hollow rattle became audible.  There was something weird and
+uncanny about the sound.  No mortal hand, no mortal agency had loosened
+those rocks and sent them hurtling down into the depths below.  It was
+almost as if the demons of the air were abroad.
+
+The party was descending a long _couloir_ or gully, which traversed
+obliquely the iron face of the mountain.  The crannies of the rocks were
+filled with snow and the footing was good.  Here and there a bit of
+sloping ice necessitated the cutting of a step or two, but, on the
+whole, the way was easy.  Yet the guides seem to cast anxious glances
+upward, and ever and anon that ghostly echoing rattle was heard.
+
+"Sunshine is a delightful thing," quoth Fordham.  "But like everything
+else to which that term applies it is bound to have its obverse side.  I
+could wish just now it had been cloudier and colder."
+
+"Why the deuce should you wish that?" said Philip.
+
+"Because then there wouldn't be so many stones flying.  You see, they're
+frozen to the rock by a thin cementing of ice.  As soon as the sun has
+any power that ice melts and they slide off.  All these rock mountains
+are the very devil for falling stones.  On the Matterhorn you hear them
+rattling all day long--"
+
+A vehement imprecation from both guides simultaneously, interrupted
+them.  There was a rushing sound in the air very like the "whigge" of a
+shell, and a shadow seemed to swoop over their heads.  Looking upward
+they beheld a solid mass of rock of at least two tons' weight, sailing
+through the air.  It had shot outward from the last projecting portion
+of the cliff upon which it had struck, and now describing a lofty arc it
+whizzed directly over their position, and striking the rocks some
+hundred feet lower split into fragments, which went crashing and roaring
+down to the glacier beneath.
+
+Fordham, contemplating this occurrence, shook his head slightly and said
+nothing.  Philip opened his eyes wide and ejaculated, "By Jove!"  The
+guides swore with renewed energy.  Each action was characteristic.
+
+For any such edifying notions as that the average man feels subdued and
+reverential in the presence of impending danger may safely be relegated
+to the Sunday school.  In nine cases out of ten he relieves his feelings
+pretty much as these Alpine guides did theirs--or feels inclined to--
+presumably as the outcome of an unwonted excitement not unmixed perhaps
+with a sort of irritation against the powers that be, which have, in a
+manner of speaking, "cornered" him.
+
+"We must get on so quick as we can.  De shtones are going to fall to-day
+like a devil," remarked Peter.  This comparison as it stood was a
+correct one and graphic withal.  But in point of fact no thought of the
+fall of Lucifer entered the honest guide's head.  He was merely
+reproducing a time-honoured and highly colloquial simile, the
+unconscious variation of which made Philip laugh.
+
+For a quarter of an hour all went well.  Suddenly that ominous rattle
+was heard again--right overhead.  The three foremost were on a small but
+steep slope of hard ice, nor could they move out of the steps which had
+been cut by the foremost guide's axe.  It follows, therefore, that the
+attitudes struck by them were grotesque in the extreme as they stood
+glaring wildly upward at a rumbling shower of stones coming down
+straight at them, as though the power of the human eye might at a pinch
+avail to deflect the dreaded volley.  On it came, whizzing and
+ricochetting by--the three men staring at it in the most ludicrous state
+of helplessness, Fordham ducking violently as a small chip rebounding
+from the ice grazed his ear like a slug.  It was but a shower of small
+stones--none larger than a cricket ball.  But a bullet is as potent for
+evil as a cannon shot, as Philip was destined to learn.  He was seen to
+pick up his right leg with a howl of pain, and then to go rather white
+in the face.
+
+"Are you hurt?" said the head guide, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Oh, not much, I suppose," was the rather doleful reply.  "I believe my
+ankle's broken, that's all."
+
+Peter, without a word, turned back to help him, but he declined any aid.
+
+"The sooner we are out of this the better," he said.  "I can hop along
+somehow.  Hand us your flask, Fordham.  That's better!"
+
+And he was as good as his word.  Though his foot was frightfully painful
+he found that he could still use it, and at length they left the
+rock-face of the mountain and gained the high ice _arete_ which forms
+one of the spurs of the latter.
+
+It was an awkward place wherein to be incapacitated.  The way lay right
+along the very edge of the _arete_, where there was not room for two to
+walk abreast.  But Phil was very game.  The pain of his bruised ankle
+increased with every step, but he was not going to hamper his companions
+by collapsing.  He took another liberal pull at Fordham's flask, and
+started again manfully, trying to persuade himself that he was in
+reality more frightened than hurt.
+
+But apart from this casualty the view as seen from the apex of the dizzy
+_arete_ was a thing to make the very pulses bound with delight in the
+sheer exhilaration of living.  Behind rose the stupendous cliffs of the
+eastern face of the Rothhorn, soaring up to its twin-peaked summit
+against the deep and cloudless blue.  Immediately beneath, webbed and
+criss-crossed by innumerable cracks, lay an amphitheatre of vast
+glaciers flowing down from a crescent of grim and frowning cliffs
+culminating in the Ober-Gabelhorn, a tower of precipitous rock.  Right
+opposite, the huge Matterhorn, a dark monolith, frowning, defiant--then
+a white sublimity of dazzling snow mountains, the broad hump of the
+Breithorn, and the two smaller ones known as Castor and Pollux--the
+perilous Lyskamm and the sheeny mass of the beautiful Monte Rosa.
+Glaciers, innumerable and vast, mighty rivers of rolling white waves,
+whatever way the eye should turn.
+
+There was a sudden boom as of a heavy thunderpeal--a dull, roaring rush
+as of a mighty torrent.  A grand avalanche was pouring down the dark
+perpendicular precipices which shut in the head of the Trift glacier, a
+cataract of powdery whiteness, which, when the glass was brought to
+bear, revealed hundreds of tons of frozen snow and huge ice blocks,
+falling into a frightful chasm at the foot of the cliff, whence arose a
+column of powdery spray for many minutes afterward.  As this vast volume
+flowed down the metallic face of the dark rock, each peak and precipice
+around re-echoed the thunderous boom in a hundred differing
+reverberations.
+
+Scarcely had this ceased than there came a sound of yodelling--cheery,
+melodious, distant.  Far down in the centre of the white and crevassed
+plain, four specks, equidistant, were moving in a downward course.
+
+"It is a caravan who has come over de Trift-joch," pronounced Conrad
+Spinner.  And then he and his colleagues lifting up their voices,
+answered the yodel, while Philip, being unskilled in that art but moved
+by a British and youthful desire to make a noise of some sort, lifted up
+his in an ear-splitting and quite unmelodious yell.
+
+The ice _arete_ came to an end at last and was succeeded by a long
+descent over loose rocks, which, piled and packed together by the hand
+of Nature, made a very tedious and difficult descent at the best of
+times.  To poor Philip with his bruised ankle it became excruciating.
+At length he could endure it no longer and sank to the ground with an
+agonised groan.
+
+"Off with your boot, and let's appraise the damage," said Fordham.
+"Yes, it's a bad whack," he went on, as the extent of the injury became
+manifest--for the whole ankle was frightfully swollen.  It had been
+struck on the inside, and the least touch made the sufferer wince.  Both
+guides shook their heads gloomily as they marked the angry and inflamed
+aspect of the contusion, and Peter Anderledy fired off a few invocations
+of his Maker in terms far more forcible than reverential.  Even for this
+there might have been found some extenuation.  Besides a rough and steep
+descent over the loose rocks aforesaid, there yet remained a bit of
+cliff to be climbed down, the end of a glacier to cross, then at least
+half an hour down a high moraine, whose edge, sharp and knife-like,
+entailed single file progress, before they reached a point from which a
+mule or a litter might be used, and even that point was some hours
+distant from the village.
+
+This, however, was accomplished at last--the descent of the cliff being
+avoided by a long _detour_.  With the help of Conrad's stalwart shoulder
+poor Phil managed to get along with a minimum of pain.  But it took them
+rather more than twice the ordinary time to accomplish the traject, nor
+did they arrive at the point whence artificial transport could be used
+until long after the hour when they had reckoned upon sitting safe and
+snug at _table d'hote_ in the Hotel Mont Cervin at Zermatt.
+
+"I say, Conrad, this is a right royal sell," said Philip, as they sat
+round a handful of fire which the guide had built--for Peter and Fordham
+had hurried on to procure a mule or a _chaise-a-porteur_, and could not
+return for some hours.  "Sell isn't the word for it.  We reckoned on
+doing the Matterhorn the day after to-morrow.  I suppose there's no
+chance of it now."
+
+"If you can walk as far as de Riffel in one week you can tink you are
+very lucky," answered the guide.
+
+Poor Philip groaned.
+
+"It's deuced rough," he said.  "I didn't come over to Zermatt to lie up
+a week in a confounded hotel."
+
+"It would be worse to lie up for ever in de churchyard," answered Conrad
+oracularly, as he lit his pipe.
+
+"I suppose it would--but, I say, Conrad, how is it you fellows all talk
+such good English?  Where the dickens do you learn it?"
+
+"We learn it in de vinter.  We make a class."
+
+"But who teaches you?  Do you get hold of an Englishman?"
+
+"No.  It is a Swiss--a Swiss who has been five years in America.  But,"
+added the guide, naively, "I don't tink his pronunciation is very good."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Meanwhile, Fordham and Peter were making their way down the wild and
+desolate Trift-thal in the moonlight.
+
+"I never did see de Rothhorn so bad for de shtones as to-day," grumbled
+the latter.  "Dey come down, oh, like a devil."
+
+"It's unfortunate, but one consolation is that it was nobody's fault.
+It was sheer ill-luck, Peter, and you or Conrad might equally well have
+been hit."
+
+"No, it is nobody's fault," assented Peter.  "But, if anyting goes wrong
+with de gentleman dere are always peoples what say it is de guide's
+fault.  But dat is just de very ting no guide can help--de falling
+shtones.  We get over de place as quick as we can, but we can't _run_.
+_Ach_!" he concluded, with a disgusted shake of the head.
+
+There was reason in what he said.  An Alpine guide under the
+circumstances is in much the same position as the captain of a ship.
+There are casualties which can be averted neither by the skill of the
+one nor the seamanship of the other, nor the courage of both.  Yet when
+such occur public opinion is equally hard on both.
+
+It was midnight before the sufferer was safely housed.  The local
+practitioner looked grave, very grave, when he examined the injury.  He
+peremptorily forbade the patient to set foot to the ground until he gave
+him leave, and that under pain of almost certainly losing his foot
+altogether.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Great events from little causes spring."  The little cause in this
+instance was that little stone.  There was a grim literalness in Peter
+Anderledy's unconscious variation of a well-worn simile when he
+predicted that the stones were going to fall "like a devil"--for the
+falling of that little stone was destined to alter the course of Philip
+Orlebar's whole life.  Its effect might well have been the result of
+satanic intervention.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+A WEAPON TO HAND.
+
+"Hallo, Wentworth?"
+
+"Hallo, Fordham!"
+
+"Hot, isn't it?"
+
+"Beastly hot."
+
+Thus characteristically did these two Britons greet each other, meeting
+unexpectedly on the steps of one of the hotels at Zermatt.  The bell was
+ringing for _table d'hote_ luncheon, and the sojourners in that
+extensive caravanserai were dropping in by twos and threes; ladies--
+ruddy of countenance, the result of sunburn--sketch-book and alpenstock
+in hand; spectacled Teutons in long black coats with the inevitable
+opera-glass slung around them; English youths armed with butterfly net
+or tennis racket, and a sprinkling of the ubiquitous Anglican parson
+whose nondescript holiday attire, which its wearer flattered himself
+savoured of the real mountaineer while not entirely disguising his
+"cloth," imparted to him very much the aspect of a raffish undertaker in
+attenuated circumstances.  The usual line of guides, taciturn and
+melancholy, roosted upon the low wall just outside the hotel, or stood
+in a knot in front of the wood-carving shop opposite, their normal
+stolidity just awakened into a gleam of speculative interest by the
+appearance of a string of vehicles heaving in sight amid a cloud of
+dust, upon the road which leads up from St. Nicolas.  For this was
+before the days of the railway, and Zermatt, still uncockneyfied,
+retained most of its pristine picturesqueness in spite of the monster
+hotels dominating its quaint brown chalets.  And then the majestic cone
+of the Matterhorn, towering up from its plinth of rock and glacier.
+
+"Are you staying in this house, Wentworth?" pursued Fordham.  "I thought
+the `Monte Rosa' was the hotel patronised by all you regular climbing
+fellows."
+
+"It is, as a rule.  But I thought I'd come here for a change.  Besides,
+when I'm not climbing I like to be among ordinary people.  One gets a
+little sick of hearing nothing but guide-and-rope `shop' talked.  Where
+have you turned up from now?"
+
+"Zinal.  Came _via_ the top of the Rothhorn.  Orlebar got rather a nasty
+whack from a falling stone.  He'll have to lie by for a day or two."
+
+"Did he?  By Jove!  Now you mention it, I heard there had been a
+one-horse kind of accident yesterday.  I think they said it was on the
+Trift-joch.  But I didn't believe it, and then, you see, I started early
+this morning to walk up to the Stockje hut and am only just back.  Poor
+chap!  I say, though, is he badly hit?"
+
+"Between you and me and yonder mule, he is rather.  Badly enough to
+knock him out of any more climbing this season.  He'll have to get all
+the brag he can out of the Rothhorn alone until next year, at any rate.
+It's rough on him, too, as he was keen on doing a few of the bigger
+things."
+
+"Rough it is.  Poor chap!  I must go upstairs and see him after tiffin.
+But, come along, Fordham, we had better go in.  You can sit by me; there
+are a lot of empty places around my end of the room."
+
+From their place at table--a remote corner--they could watch the room
+filling.  The bulk of the people were of the order already referred to,
+but there were some new arrivals, mostly uninteresting--a parson or two;
+a thick-set Scotchman with a blowsy wife and a whole tribe of
+wooden-faced, flaxen-haired children; a couple of undergraduates in
+neckties of vivid hue, presumably their college colours; item, a pair of
+grim spinsters of uncertain age and tract-disseminating principles; in
+short, the average ruck of our fellow-countrymen abroad.
+
+"Rather a pretty girl, that," murmured Wentworth.
+
+Fordham, who was critically inspecting the wine-list, looked up.  Two
+ladies had just entered the room, and it was to the younger of these
+that Wentworth had referred.  Both were dark, and the elder bore traces
+of having been at one time strikingly handsome--the younger was so.  In
+their remarkable duplication of each other Nature had unmistakably
+ticketed them mother and daughter.
+
+Upon Fordham the entry of these two produced an astonishing effect.  All
+the colour faded from his swarthy cheek, leaving a sallow livid
+paleness.  His lips were drawn tightly against his teeth, and his black
+piercing eyes, half-closed, seemed to dart forth lurid lightnings, as he
+watched the unconscious pair moving down the long room towards their
+seat.  Would they discover his presence?  Surely there was something
+magnetic in that burning glance--a something to which the objects of it
+could hardly remain unconscious.  Yet they did.
+
+He saw them take their places.  His back was to the light.  They had not
+seen him.  But had they caught the devilish, awful, surging hate
+expressed in that fearful scrutiny it is doubtful whether they would
+have eaten their luncheon with so tranquil an appetite.
+
+"Good-looking, isn't she?" pursued Wentworth, too intent on his own
+observation to perceive the change that had come over his friend.  "For
+the matter of that, so is the mother--if it is her mother.  They might
+easily be sisters.  What do you think, Fordham?"
+
+"So they might," replied the latter tranquilly, sticking up his
+eyeglass.  He had entirely recovered his self-possession, although there
+lurked within his glance a snake-like glitter.  "Older one needn't be a
+day more than forty, and the girl half that.  But I say, Wentworth, I
+thought you were past admiring that sort of cattle."
+
+"Well, I am in a general way.  But that's a splendid-looking girl.  Even
+you must admit that."
+
+If a slight shrug of the shoulders amounted to admission, Wentworth was
+welcome to it.  The object of his eulogy had all the dazzling "points"
+of a perfect brunette.  Hair and eyelashes dark as night--and abundance
+of both--large clear eyes, and regular, white teeth which gleamed every
+now and then in a bewitching smile as their owner responded to some
+remark on the part of her right-hand neighbour with whom she had entered
+into conversation.  While she was in full view of the two men her mother
+was not, being screened by the ample dimensions and exuberant cap
+strings of a portly British matron opposite.
+
+The confused clatter and buzz of a babel of tongues at length began to
+suffer abatement, then gave way to the rasping pandemonium of chairs
+pushed back by the dozen along the polished wooden floor.  Fordham,
+watching his opportunity, left the room under cover of two large groups
+of people already flitting from his neighbourhood.  As he did so, a
+sidelong glance towards the two new arrivals satisfied him that his
+identity was still unperceived by them, which, for reasons of his own,
+he particularly desired.  Having thus effected his retreat undiscovered,
+he paused and took up his position in the passage within a few yards of
+the dining-room door as if awaiting the exit of somebody.
+
+The passage, unlighted by windows, was in shade--in a grateful and
+refreshing gloom, deepened and intensified by the glare of the midday
+sunshine in the room beyond.  As he thus stood, his back to the wall,
+that expression of deadly vindictive hatred returned to his face.
+Standing back in the semi-gloom, he resembled some lurking beast of prey
+in the diabolical passions impacted upon his countenance.
+
+"What an exceedingly disagreeable-looking man," had remarked more than
+one of the passers by who had noted this expression.  "Whoever he is
+waiting for will have an unpleasant surprise, anyhow."  This was true,
+but not in the superficial and commonplace sense in which it was
+enunciated.
+
+Nearly everybody had left the room but those two.  Would they sit there
+all day?  Ah!  Now!
+
+They were advancing up the room, the glowing and graceful beauty of the
+girl in striking contrast to the maturer and time-worn charms of the
+matron, who was still wonderfully handsome.  It was a pleasing picture
+to look upon.
+
+But the effect upon him now standing there was assuredly far from a
+pleasing one.  The expression of his countenance had become positively
+devilish.  The two were in the doorway now--the girl making some light
+laughing remark to her mother.
+
+But just then the latter looked up--looked up full into Fordham's face,
+into the burning, sunken eyes glowering in the shadow, and the effect
+was startling.  A look of the most awful terror came over her face, and
+she put up her hands wildly as if to ward off some appalling object.
+Then with a quick, gasping shriek, she fell heavily to the floor in a
+dead faint.
+
+The shriek was echoed by another, as the girl flung herself wildly down
+beside her mother, adjuring the latter by every endearing name.  But the
+poor woman lay in a ghastly and livid unconsciousness that was more like
+death.
+
+The lounging, chatting groups--mostly ladies--which had been scattered
+about the hall, startled by the shrieking, came crowding up in dubious,
+half-frightened fashion.  Waiters came pouring out of the dining-room
+door.  To the head of these Fordham spoke.
+
+"Is there a doctor staying in the house, Alphonse?  The lady seems to be
+rather unwell.  And--I say, Alphonse," he added, "is Mr Wentworth still
+in the dining-room?  I've been waiting for him ever so long."
+
+"Here I am, Fordham," answered a voice behind him.  "Why, man, I've been
+out for at least ten minutes.  But what's the row?"
+
+Meanwhile the sufferer was being cared for by several of her own sex.
+As it happened, too, there was an English doctor staying in the house,
+who now appeared on the scene.
+
+"Stand back, please," he ordered, authoritatively.  "She'll soon come
+round.  But give her some air at any rate.  What caused it?" he added to
+the sobbing, frightened girl.  "She has had a shock of some sort."
+
+"She couldn't have," was the answer.  "She--she--screamed and fell down.
+There was n-n-nothing to startle her--in fact, there was a strange
+gentleman standing there as if waiting for somebody.  But he was a
+perfect stranger."
+
+All this Fordham--who had drawn out of the crowd and was out of sight,
+but not of hearing--caught.  The doctor made no direct reply to the
+statement, though on the point of the utter unfamiliarity of the
+stranger's appearance it is highly probable that he formed his own
+opinion.
+
+"Let's go and look at the visitors' book," suggested Wentworth.  "I want
+to see if there's any one I know."
+
+They strolled into the bureau and the book was produced.  While
+Wentworth ran his eye attentively down the list of names, Fordham,
+standing behind him, hardly seemed to look at it.  Anyhow, he evinced no
+interest whatever in the identity of anybody.  But in reality the fact
+was the other way.
+
+"The same name," he said to himself.  "The same name!  That simplifies
+matters all round.  Now I see daylight.  At last--at last!"
+
+Half an hour later Fordham strolled round to the village post-office and
+mailed a batch of letters.  This was not in itself an extraordinary
+circumstance.  But in the midst of that batch was one addressed to
+`_Mrs Daventer_,' and he knew it would be delivered that same
+afternoon.
+
+"What sort of a crowd at lunch, Fordham?" said Philip, as the door of
+his room opened to admit that worthy.  "Any one new?  Hullo, Wentworth!
+Where have you dropped from?"
+
+"Oh, I've been around here about a week.  But I say, Orlebar, it's
+rather hard lines getting yourself knocked out of time this way."
+
+"Hard lines isn't the word for it.  And--what do you think?  That
+confounded ass of a doctor says I sha'n't be able to do any climbing
+this season.  But he's only a Swiss," he added, with the youthful John
+Bull's lordly contempt for talent or attainments encased in other than
+an Anglo-Saxon skull.
+
+"You may depend upon it he knows his business," responded Wentworth.
+"But you do as he tells you and keep your hoof up, old man, or you may
+be pinned up in this lively chamber for a month."
+
+"I suppose you've been doing some big climbs?" said Philip, wistfully.
+
+"Not yet.  Been taking it easy.  I started to do the Deut Blanche the
+day after I came here, but the weather worked up bad and we had to turn
+back.  I say, Orlebar, you'd better look sharp and get right.  There was
+a deuced pretty girl at _table d'hote_.  Her mother fainted in the
+passage directly after, and there was a devil of an uproar.  I believe
+Fordham made faces at her and scared her into a fit.  He was the only
+person there at the time--"
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed Philip.  "Scowled at her `like a devil,' as Peter
+would say.  Eh, Fordham?"
+
+But the latter, who was lighting a cigar, made no reply.
+
+"By the way, Orlebar," said Wentworth.  "Seen anything more of that girl
+you were so gone on at Les Avants, Miss--Miss--"
+
+The speaker broke off with a start that was comical, for Fordham, while
+endeavouring to convey a mild and warning kick unseen of the third
+party--a thing which nobody ever succeeded in doing yet, and in all
+probability never will--had brought his hoof in contact with a corn,
+imparting to poor Wentworth the sensation as of a red-hot needle
+suddenly driven into his toe.  In a measure it served him right, for his
+blundering had touched poor Philip on a very sore place.  Lying there
+all the morning--with the prospect of a good many mornings and
+afternoons too, destined to be similarly spent--the poor fellow had
+found ample time for thought.
+
+"What a chap you are, Wentworth!" he retorted, irritably.  "Here is a
+poor devil tied by the leg in an infernal room for Heaven knows how
+long, and you can find nothing better to liven him up with than a lot of
+feeble and second-hand chaff.  Let's have something a little more
+amusing.  Tell us some mountaineering lies for instance."
+
+And Wentworth spent the best part of the afternoon telling him some.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+FORGING THE LINK.
+
+A pile of rocks overgrown with stunted rhododendron bushes and shaggy,
+weather-beaten pines, also stunted.  Among these a foaming mountain
+torrent cleft its way, dashing through the deep, narrow chasm which
+walled it in some fifty feet below.  A seldom-frequented path wound
+around the base of the rocks, passing over a crazy wooden bridge.
+
+On the morning subsequent to the events just detailed Richard Fordham
+sat among the rocks aforesaid, smoking a cigar.  He had lighted it on
+first arriving at this sequestered spot, and now the glowing end was
+almost burning his fingers.  This showed that he had been waiting there
+for some time--half an hour at least.
+
+Waiting?  That was just what he was doing.  But there was no impatience
+attendant on the process.  His gaze had scarcely wandered from the
+stretch of open meadowland lying between his position and the brown
+roofs of Zermatt nearly a mile away--yet in it there was no concern, no
+anxiety.
+
+An object was approaching along the path--a grey sunshade.  Beneath this
+was a human figure--a female figure.  Watching its approach, the
+expression of his countenance underwent a change; but in it there was
+still no impatience.  The expression of that dark, saturnine countenance
+was one of exultant ferocity, such as might animate that of the
+concealed leopard as it watches the unsuspecting antelope advance step
+by step within easy springing distance of its lurking-place.
+
+The new arrival continued to advance slowly until she had reached the
+rickety wooden bridge.  There she paused and looked around as though
+puzzled.
+
+At the sound of a cough above she started and changed colour, then
+catching sight of another path, began to ascend to where he stood.  This
+was a platform of rock on the edge of the chasm.  It was shut in by the
+trees in such fashion that any one standing there would be scarcely
+discernible from without, while commanding the approaches from the
+quarter whence any one would be in the least likely to advance.
+
+The new-comer was an extremely well-preserved woman of middle age.  She
+was slightly above the medium height, and her dark, flashing eyes and
+strongly marked brows gave her an imperious look which it needed not the
+firm jaw and erect figure to confirm.  But the expression stamped upon
+her pale features at that moment was not that of power, rather it was
+one of apprehension--of undisguisable dread, dashed with strong
+abhorrence.  As she stood there, panting with the exertion of the
+ascent, or agitation, or both, a chance observer might have discovered
+in her countenance a curious likeness to that of Fordham himself.
+
+The latter made no gesture, uttered no word of greeting.  The evil
+expression in his face was qualified by a thin, cold sneer.  Thus they
+confronted each other--the one pale, apprehensive, yet with strong
+aversion and defiance in her eyes; the other self-possessed, thoroughly
+conscious of power, and returning hate for hate in fullest measure.
+
+"Well?" broke from her at last, to the accompaniment of a half-checked
+stamp of the foot.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"What have you got to say to me?" she said curtly; adding, in a
+repressed volcano-storm of wrath and bitterness.  "I have obeyed orders,
+you see."
+
+"You could not have done otherwise.  Even you have the sense thoroughly
+to realise that."
+
+"But I didn't know _you_ were here," she went on; "not yet, anyhow.
+When I saw you I got something of a shock, for my system is not what it
+was.  You quite took me by surprise."
+
+"I believe you--for once.  Finished actress as you are, even you could
+hardly have counterfeited the tragic effect produced by my unexpected
+appearance yesterday.  The devil himself could hardly have scared you
+more."
+
+"Of the two it is the devil himself that I should have preferred to
+see."
+
+"Undoubtedly.  But the malevolent powers commonly attributed to that
+functionary are nothing to those I shall bring to bear on you if you
+neglect to carry out my instructions implicitly.  On you and yours, I
+should have said."
+
+Was it there that the secret of his power lay?  An involuntary spasm
+passed through her frame as if she had received a stab.
+
+"Perhaps, then, you will oblige me by communicating them," she hastened
+to reply.  "For it happens I have made arrangements to leave here this
+very day--or to-morrow at latest."
+
+"Those arrangements you will have the trouble of cancelling, then."
+
+"Indeed!  And may I ask why?"
+
+"Certainly.  Your appearance here yesterday is going to supply the
+weapon I have been working to forge for years.  Nothing is now wanting
+to complete the chain.  Yours is the hand that shall do so.  To that end
+you will remain here--as long as I require your presence."
+
+"That is a very odd turn for events to take--that you should require my
+presence," she said, with a bitter sneer.
+
+"Very.  In fact, the irony of the situation is unique.  And yet there
+are people who say there is no such thing as poetic justice."
+
+"But now, suppose you begin by giving one some idea as to the nature of
+this wonderful plan of yours.  I take for granted it is for nobody's
+_good_, anyhow."
+
+"You are wrong there.  It will tend most distinctly to the good of two
+people.  And--calm your amazement--one of those people is yourself."
+
+"Your warning is wholly needed.  The idea that any action of _yours_
+could tend to _my_ advantage is sufficient to justify the wildest
+amazement, were there room for any other emotion than complete
+incredulity," she answered, with a scornful smile.
+
+"You shall see directly.  But, first of all, let me congratulate you on
+the extremely fascinating appearance of--your daughter.  It really does
+you the greatest credit--"
+
+"We will leave her out of the question, if you please," she interrupted,
+speaking quickly.
+
+"But I don't please--and that for the best possible reason.  I said just
+now that the scheme in which I require your aid will tend to the
+advantage of two persons, one of them being yourself.  The other is--
+your daughter."
+
+"Then you will certainly not obtain my aid.  In anything that tends to
+involve my child in co-operation--however indirect--with yourself, I
+flatly refuse to have any hand."
+
+The sardonic smile deepened around Fordham's mouth.  He opened his
+cigar-case, took out a fresh cigar, and lighted it with the greatest
+deliberation.
+
+"It is always a pity to commit oneself to a rash statement," he said.
+"The determination just expressed you will directly see reason to
+reconsider--certainly before you leave this delightful spot."
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Oh, but you will!  You are, to do you justice, far too much a woman of
+the world--life has been far too comfortable, too prosperous for you--
+for you both--during, we'll say, the last twenty years, for you to face
+the alternative now."
+
+"Has it?  I will risk anything--face any alternative."
+
+"Even that of starvation?"
+
+"Even that.  But it will not come to that.  Poverty it may be--but--we
+can work--we can live somehow."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!  Can you?  Only try it.  I see I was giving you undue
+credit just now when I defined you as a woman of the world.  Those who
+talk airily of poverty are always the ones who have spent life in
+luxury.  Think of it in all its aspects--of being on the very verge of
+starvation, of the fireless grate, and weeks of north-east wind and
+snowstorm, of the foul, insanitary den--kennel rather--covered by the
+same roof as that which shelters the most debased two-legged animals
+which ever bore semblance to the stamp of humanity.  Think of the sights
+and sounds, the mad-drunk ruffians, and the fighting, clawing,
+screaming, harpies; the `language of the people,' and nights made
+hideous with the yells of some one being murdered.  This is what poverty
+is going to mean in your case.  This is what you and your--child will
+come to.  Stay a moment.  You think I am exaggerating?  You think, no
+doubt, you have friends who will help you--who will never see you come
+to this?  But don't flatter yourself.  I will prevent them from helping
+you.  I will cause them to spurn you from their doors--both of you.  In
+fact, I will hunt you down into utter and complete ruin--both of you.
+Both of you--mark it well!  Why do I not do so in any case?  I don't
+know.  But oppose me in the slightest particular--neglect in the
+minutest detail the scheme I am going to set you to carry out--and
+this--and more than all this shall come upon you--shall come upon you
+both--as sure as I am a living man."
+
+Her face was as white as a sheet, and in her flashing eyes there was the
+look of a tigress whose whelps are menaced, as she advanced a step
+nearer to him, her breast heaving violently.
+
+"Dare you boast that you _are_ a living man?" she panted, clenching and
+unclenching her hands.  "Are you not afraid I shall kill you where you
+stand?  I shall some day--I know it!"
+
+"Do--if you can.  And, by the way, this would have been an excellent
+opportunity.  In the first place, you would be entirely free from
+interruption, for I have already scouted the whole of this covert to
+ensure the absence of the regulation dauber intent on evolving the
+pictorial presentment of a dissipated-looking sugar-loaf, under the
+impression that he or she is sketching the Matterhorn.  In the next,
+this country has practically abolished the death penalty, so that you
+would get a dozen years at most, and your child would have the honour of
+being the daughter of a convict as well as--But drop these
+melodramatics, and return to sound sense.  Heavens, woman!  I wonder you
+dare talk to _me_ like this."  And as his memory leaped back his deep
+voice took the snarling rumble of an enraged wild beast.
+
+Man and Nature are ever offering the most vivid and jarring contrasts.
+The brown roofs of the village, dominated by the white cubes of the
+great hotels, lay nestling amid the green meadows, against a background
+of stately mountains.  The hoarse rush of the torrent, pent up in the
+narrow fissure at their feet, joined with the deeper roar of the
+churning Visp, gathering hourly in volume as the midday sun told in
+power upon its feeder, the great Gorner glacier, whose sheeny _seracs_
+reared their dazzling battlements in a blue and white line above the
+vernal pastures at the head of the valley, while the stately monolith of
+the giant Matterhorn towered aloft into the vivid blue of the cloudless
+heavens.  Yet there, amid the sequestered solitude of the jagged pines,
+stood these two, confronting each other with deadly rage in their
+hearts, with bitterest hate and defiance flashing from their set faces
+and burning eyes--a very hell of evil passions surging alike in both.
+
+"Now take your choice," he went on.  "Carry out my plan as I am about to
+lay it before you, and you will benefit yourself in doing so.  Refuse,
+or mar it in the slightest detail, either by bungling or of set design,
+and I will utterly crush you both, beginning from this day.  You know
+me."
+
+She made no answer.  She never removed her eyes from his, and her breath
+came in quick, hard gasps.  Her aspect was that of some dangerous animal
+cornered, driven to bay.  Barely a couple of yards behind him was the
+brink of the narrow fissure by which the churning torrent cleft its way
+through the heart of the rocks.  The sneering, mocking smile which came
+into his face as he read her thoughts was devilish in its maddening
+provocation.
+
+"No go," he said.  "You couldn't do it.  I am much too firm on my pins.
+You would be extremely likely to go over yourself, and then what would
+become of Laura, left to _my_ tender mercies?"
+
+"You fiend!  I think Satan himself must be a god compared with you."
+
+"Am I to take that as a compliment?  Well, now to business.  Sit down."
+
+"Thank you.  I prefer to stand."
+
+"I don't," seating himself upon a boulder and puffing deliberately at
+his cigar.  "Please yourself, however.  And now kindly give me your best
+attention."
+
+Then for the next twenty minutes he did all the talking, though every
+now and then an ejaculation of anger, disgust, or dissidence would
+escape her.  This, however, affected him not in the slightest degree.
+The cold, cutting, sarcastic tones flowed evenly on, laying down the
+details of what was to her a strange and startling plan.  Not until he
+had unfolded it in all its bearings did he pause, as though to invite
+comment.
+
+But by that time it was noticeable that the horror and decisiveness in
+her refusal to co-operate with which the woman had first received his
+suggestion had undergone a very marked abatement.  She could even bring
+herself to discuss the scheme in some of its details.
+
+"Now," he concluded--"now you see I am practically proposing to be
+Laura's greatest benefactor; yours, too, in a secondary degree, for the
+event will render you, to a large extent, free from my bondage."
+
+"That indeed would be to benefit me," she answered, with a return of the
+old, rancorous aversion.  "But even now the motive you have given is not
+above suspicion.  It is too inadequate."
+
+"Not so.  If you look at it all round you will perceive it is complete.
+I am of a revengeful disposition, and now, after half a lifetime, I see
+my opportunity for taking a most sweeping revenge.  But I like my
+retribution to be as original as it is far-reaching.  This one is.  In
+fact, it is unique."
+
+How unique it was even she could not at the moment fathom.  But she was
+destined to learn it later, in all its grim and undreamed-of horror.
+
+"I hope I may be allowed to change my mind," said Mrs Daventer,
+sweetly, as she entered the bureau of the hotel that afternoon.  "I wish
+to counter-order the arrangements I made for leaving to-morrow.  It can
+be managed, I hope?"
+
+"I will see immediately, madame," said the civil _employe_, looking up
+from the pile of letters he was sorting, and which had just come in.  "I
+tink de mules are already ordered.  One moment--I will just inquire."
+
+He went out, leaving Mrs Daventer alone in the bureau.  She turned over
+some of the letters.  Among the uppermost in the half-sorted pile was
+one addressed "Philip Orlebar, Esq."  The handwriting was rather large
+and bold, but distinctly feminine, and the envelope bore the Zinal
+postmark.  At sight of this Mrs Daventer's pulses quickened and her
+eyes dilated.  Then she heard the _employe's_ steps returning.
+
+"It will be all right, madame," he said.  "Another party is going down
+who will be very glad of de mules."
+
+She thanked him, entered into a few pleasant commonplaces as to the
+attractions of the locality, the number of people abroad that year, the
+fineness of the season, and so forth, and expressing a little
+disappointment at the man's reply that the pile of letters just
+delivered contained none for her or her daughter, she went out.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Philip Orlebar received several letters that afternoon, but they did not
+comprise one bearing the Zinal postmark, which circumstance, however,
+conveyed no disappointment, inasmuch as he had never expected they
+would.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+SIR FRANCIS ORLEBAR.
+
+Claxby Court, Sir Francis Orlebar's seat, was a snug country box, rather
+modern in architecture and unpretentious of aspect.  A long, winding
+carriage-drive led up to the front portico, entering which you found
+yourself in a spacious central hall, lit from above by a skylight.  The
+effect of this hall, with its carved furniture and quaint oak cabinets,
+its walls covered with weapons and trophies of many lands, was extremely
+good.  A gallery ran round it above, and the dining and drawing-room,
+morning-room and library, opened out from it on the ground-floor.
+
+The stabling and gardens were of proportionately modest dimensions.  The
+house stood in a park of about fifty acres, and, being on a slight
+eminence, commanded a charming view of field and woodland stretching
+away to a line of green downs to the southward.  The estate consisted of
+about three thousand acres, but it was not all good land, and there was
+always a farm or two lying unlet.  The former possessor had been a
+careful man, but although times were better in his day, he had found it
+all he could do to steer clear of serious embarrassment.  The present
+one found it hardly less difficult, but he had two things in his favour.
+He was a man of simple and inexpensive tastes, and, with the exception
+of one son, he was childless.  His liability was, therefore, a strictly
+limited one.
+
+Sir Francis Orlebar stood in his library window, thinking.  It was a
+bright summer morning--bright and cheerful enough to have exercised a
+corresponding effect upon the spirits.  Yet in this instance it did not
+seem to.
+
+He was a slight, well-proportioned man of medium height, but his slight
+build and erect carriage made him seem taller than he really was.  There
+was a look of almost ultra-refinement in his face, and he was still
+strikingly handsome.  His hair and moustache were grey, but his eyes
+looked almost young.  Not in their light-hearted expression, however,
+for there was a tinge of melancholy never wholly absent from them, but
+in their wonderful penetrating clearness.  It was a most contradictory
+face, and withal, to the student of physiognomy, a most provoking one,
+for as a set-off to the high forehead and straight, clear eyes there was
+a shade of weakness, of over-sensitiveness in the set of the lower jaw.
+But it was the face of a many-generation-descended gentleman.
+
+As we have said, there was nothing in this bright, mellow summer morning
+to conduce to depression.  Yet the cloud upon the thinker's face
+deepened.
+
+It would be safe to hazard a conjecture that the cause of his melancholy
+was purely subjective.  His was just the temperament which delights in
+retrospect, which is given to tormenting its owner with speculative
+musings upon what might have been--to raising the ghosts of dead and
+buried events.
+
+He looked back upon his life and derived no pleasure from the process.
+With his opportunities--always with the best intentions--what a poor
+affair he seemed to have made of it!  Better indeed for him had those
+intentions been less free from alloy, since nothing which borders on
+perfection has the slightest chance in this world of snares, and
+pitfalls, and rank growths.  Best intentions, indeed, had been his
+undoing all along the line.  His own inclinations were rather against
+the profession of arms, but he had sacrificed them and accepted a
+commission, in accordance with his father's strongly expressed wish.  He
+had married his first wife from motives of chivalry rather than
+affection--out of pity for the life of toil and grinding poverty
+otherwise mapped out for her.  Then had followed disillusion,
+unappreciativeness, ingratitude, misery, till her early death freed him
+from the ill-assorted and blighting tie.  Caught at the rebound, his too
+soft heart and aesthetic nature had led him into an intrigue which
+proved disastrous to all concerned--but, there, he did not care to dwell
+upon that.  Again, in a fit of disgust and sensitiveness, brought about
+by the _eclat_ and scandal, he had sold out--always with the best
+intentions--where another would simply have shown a bold front until the
+nine days' wonder had abated, and was left early in life without a
+profession.  He had embarked in literature, always of a delicate, not to
+say dilettante nature; had dabbled in art, and a little in a science or
+two, but had never got his head above the level of the swaying,
+striving, pushing--shall we say cringing?--multitude of heads, all
+fighting for that proud and lucrative pre-eminence.  But he had always
+the interests and occupations of a country gentleman to fall back upon,
+and perhaps, on the whole, these suited him as well as anything else.
+And then, after about twenty years wherein to reflect on the scant
+advantages which he had reaped from his former matrimonial venture, he
+had suffered himself to be again bound with the iron chain, and his
+second partner--as is curiously enough not unfrequently the case under
+the circumstances, presumably through some ironical freak of Nature
+which decrees that when a man of an age and experience to know better
+does make a fool of himself he shall do it thoroughly--possessed neither
+attractions, nor wealth, nor suitability of temperament to recommend
+her.  And having arrived at this stage of his retrospection, poor Sir
+Francis could not but own to himself--we fear, not for the first time--
+that in taking this step to counteract the growing loneliness of
+advancing age he had performed the metaphorical and saltatory feat
+popularly known as "jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire."
+
+But there was one bright influence shining in upon the shaded events of
+his anything but cheerful introspection, and its name was Philip.  The
+baronet's heart glowed with pride at the thought of his fine,
+open-hearted, handsome son, upon whom he lavished an almost feminine
+affection.  Here again came in that fatal motor, "best intentions."
+Better, perchance, had a little more steel and a little less velvet
+gloved the hand which had had the bringing up of that sunny-natured
+youth.  But Sir Francis was the last person to whom this was likely to
+occur, and now, as he thought that the time for his idolised son's
+return could not be very far distant, there stole over his features an
+unconscious smile of pleasurable anticipation.
+
+Immersed in such congenial musing, he hardly heard the subdued knock at
+the door, the almost noiseless footsteps of the well-trained butler.
+The latter bore some letters on a salver.
+
+"Put them on the table, Karslake," said the baronet, unwilling to be
+disturbed in his pleasant reverie.
+
+"Beg pardon, Sir Francis," said the man, who was of long standing and
+privileged--"beg pardon, Sir Francis, but I think one of 'em's from Mr
+Philip."
+
+The change in the baronet's demeanour was striking.
+
+"Eh--what?" he cried, wheeling round and making what almost amounted to
+a snatch at the letters.  Then, having pushed the others contemptuously
+aside, he resumed his position in the window, hurriedly tearing open the
+envelope.
+
+The butler meanwhile was busying himself about the room, putting things
+tidy that had got out of their places or were otherwise disarranged.  A
+quick gasp of dismay which escaped his master caused him to pause in his
+occupation.
+
+"Karslake," said the latter, in explanation, for the old butler was, as
+we said, privileged, having been in the household almost since Philip's
+birth, "you will be sorry to hear that Mr Philip has met with an
+accident--climbing those infernal mountains," he added, more to himself
+than the servant.
+
+"Not serious, I trust, Sir Francis?" said the latter, in real anxiety,
+for Philip was a prime favourite in the Claxby household, save with one,
+and that not the least important member of it.
+
+"No, thank God!  He got hit by a falling stone, and can't put his foot
+to the ground.  Confined to his room, he says."
+
+"I hope he'll be properly taken care of in them foreign parts, Sir
+Francis," said Karslake, shaking his head in John Bull-like scepticism
+as to any such possibility.
+
+"Oh, yes.  There's an English doctor attending him as well as the
+foreign one.  Thank Heaven it's no worse.  Is her ladyship down yet?
+But never mind--I'll find her anyhow," he added to himself, going to the
+door.  And as he did so it was noticeable that he walked with a slight
+limp.
+
+Lady Orlebar was up but not down, which apparently paradoxical
+definition maybe taken to mean that, arrayed in a dressing-gown, she
+reposed comfortably in a big armchair by her bedroom window.  Her
+occupation was of a twofold character, in that she was assimilating
+coffee and reading _Truth_.
+
+In externals she was a large well-built woman of middle age, handsome
+after a coarse, rubicund fashion, though a purplish hue which had
+succeeded in her cheeks the roseate flush of youth, would almost excuse
+the severe verdict of that hypercritic who should define her charms as
+somewhat "blowsy."  Her temper could not even be described as
+"uncertain," for there was no element of uncertainty about it, as poor
+Sir Francis had already realised, to his sorrow.  Her disposition was
+domineering and exacting to the last degree, and she would do nothing
+for herself that she could get anybody else to do for her--presumably to
+make up, if somewhat late in the day, for half a lifetime spent in
+perforce doing everything for herself.  From such a one as this it was
+hardly likely Sir Francis would meet with much sympathy in the flurry
+and anxiety into which the news of his son's accident had thrown him.
+
+"Mercy on us!  Is that all?" was her comment as soon as he had given her
+particulars.  "Here you come bursting in upon me regardless of my poor
+nerves, and I in such pain all night, as I always am.  You come rushing
+in upon me, I say, as if the house was on fire."
+
+The fact being that Lady Orlebar was as strong as a horse.  The only
+pain she ever suffered from was of that nature, which a daily hour's
+walk, combined with a little discrimination at table, would have
+conjured away like magic.  But it was a useful affectation to assume
+that life was a perpetual martyrdom--a highly efficient buttress to her
+ascendency.
+
+"And all about what?" she went on.  "Merely to tell me that an idle,
+good-for-nothing boy, who ought to be hard at work earning his living
+instead of skylarking about the world amusing himself, has sprained his
+ankle.  Really, Francis, I wonder the absurdity of it doesn't strike
+even you!"
+
+"Well it's a pity I said anything about it, I admit," he answered
+coldly.  "Perhaps I shouldn't have--but--how would you like a trip
+abroad, Alicia?"
+
+"What, at this time of year, when you have to sit five a side in a
+railway compartment, and to make one of a clamouring, struggling rabble,
+beseeching the hotel-keepers to allow you even a garret at a charge that
+is rather more than would be required to keep a yacht?  No, thank you,
+not for me."
+
+"Well, I don't mind a little of that sort of thing, so I think I shall
+take a run over myself."
+
+"Over where--may I ask?"
+
+"Over to Zermatt.  I should like to be sure the boy is getting proper
+care--efficient attendance.  An injury of that sort, though
+insignificant in itself, may become serious if not properly taken care
+of at the time.  And Philip is so reckless."
+
+The colour deepened in Lady Orlebar's highly coloured face, and the
+sneer upon her lips was not pleasant to look upon.
+
+"Did I hear you aright, Sir Francis?  It cannot be possible that I
+understood you to say you purposed to leave me alone here--to leave me
+all alone in my wretched state of health--while you go rushing off to
+the Continent to look after this boy, who is surely old enough to take
+care of himself, and who will probably laugh over you and your fussiness
+with his friends for your pains."
+
+"Whatever may be your opinion of Philip, you can at least credit him
+with being a gentleman," was the icy reply to this rally.
+
+But ice thrown into a boiling copper produces a mighty hissing, a
+prodigious letting off of steam.  And such was the effect entailed upon
+the lady by this rejoinder.  Of indifferent birth herself she imagined
+the reply to contain a gird at that circumstance, and rushed into the
+battle--horse, foot, and artillery.
+
+"Pah!  An idle, good-for-nothing scamp is what I credit him with being,"
+she retorted furiously.  "A fellow who allows his parents to pinch and
+starve themselves in order that he may revel in the luxury of idleness.
+And, I tell you what it is, Francis, I won't be neglected in any such
+fashion!  I won't be left alone here!  No, that is a thing I will not
+stand!  Isn't it enough that I am ground down and forced to live on a
+mere pittance because you choose to spoil your son?  Is that not enough,
+I say?  And now you propose to go away and leave me alone for an
+indefinite time.  But you will find I am not to be so easily shelved.  I
+have my rights, and I know thoroughly well how to look after them.  And
+look after them I shall--rest assured of that!  Go--go by all means!
+But the consequences be upon your own head."
+
+Of attempting to reason with her in this mood, or indeed in any mood,
+Sir Francis had long since learned the futility.  Indeed, at that moment
+he felt little inclination to attempt anything of the kind.  Apart from
+the coarseness of her temper, which revolted his more refined instincts,
+her venomous abuse of his son aroused in him the bitterest resentment.
+He was no match for an adversary of this fibre, for his refined and
+sensitive nature shrank with loathing and horror from violent scenes.
+So now he adopted the wise, if somewhat ignominious, course of beating a
+retreat.  He simply walked out of the room.
+
+This was not precisely what his wife desired.  Like all women of her
+kind, and a good many not of her kind, she dearly loved a battle, and
+the sort of battle she loved most was that wherein victory was assured.
+By fleeing at the sound of the first gun the enemy had effected a
+retreat which was three parts of a victory.  She returned to the perusal
+of _Truth_--an extra pungent number--with an angry frown, yet she could
+not quite reconcentrate her mind upon the spicy contents of the journal.
+The slave had shown signs of rebellion.  He must be made to feel that
+rebellion was not going to answer.
+
+Poor woman!  Her grievances were very great--very real--were they not?
+She had brought her husband neither wealth, looks, nor connections when
+she had condescended to take possession of him and his position and
+title, yet _her_ convenience was ever to be uppermost, _her_ word law.
+She claimed the right to control his every movement.  She had, we say,
+brought him not a shilling, yet to rule his means and expenditure was of
+course her indubitable right.  As, for instance, that he should persist
+in making an allowance to his own son, instead of turning that fortunate
+youth penniless out of doors and pouring out the cash thus saved at her
+feet, was an act of flagrant and shameful ill-treatment of her that
+cried aloud to Heaven for vengeance.  But whether Heaven listened, and
+looked upon it in the same light or not, certain it was that it
+constituted the sum and crown of all her grievances, and they were not
+few.
+
+That a man of Sir Francis Orlebar's temperament should ever have taken
+such a woman to wife--rather, we ought to say, should ever have suffered
+himself to be taken possession of by her--was marvellous, would have
+been incredible but that we know the same sort of thing happens every
+day.  And having once succumbed he was bound hand and foot.  No power on
+earth could save him.  A man more coarse fibred would have held his own,
+even at the cost of a diurnal battle royal.  One less sensitive would
+have cut the knot of the difficulty by the simple expedient of
+undertaking a tour round the world, or any other method of separation
+which should commend itself to him.  Or one of slippery principle would
+have laid himself out to effect an emancipation in the method most
+approved of by the lawyers and by newspaper editors in want of
+acceptable "copy."  But to Sir Francis each and all of these courses
+were equally repugnant--the latter, indeed, not to be thought of.  His
+bondage was complete.  He was a slave to that most tyrannical of
+despots--a thoroughly selfish, domineering, coarse-natured woman.
+
+With an instinctive idea of placing it beyond his wife's power to renew
+the last encounter he had taken himself out of the house.  As he
+strolled through the park the limp in his left leg became more
+pronounced, as curiously enough it invariably did whenever he was vexed
+or agitated, and now he was both.
+
+But by that evening the resolution he had formed to proceed to his son's
+bedside was considerably shaken.  He had telegraphed, and the replies
+had been in every way satisfactory.  Perhaps his presence there would be
+unnecessary after all.  This might or might not have been the sensible
+way of looking at it.  But continual dropping wears away stones, which
+for present purposes may be taken to mean that the tongue of a violent
+woman is a pretty effective weapon against the strongest resolution
+formed by an irresolute nature.  There had been another battle royal,
+and the baronet had retreated under cover of the satisfactory replies to
+his telegrams.  It was better to avoid any more violent scenes, and
+accordingly he had succumbed--had yielded for the sake of peace--that is
+to say, "with the very best intentions."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+But the violent tongue of his stepmother, coupled with his father's
+sensitive horror of the same, was destined to work such woe in poor
+Philip's eventual fate as even that vindictive matron little dreamed.
+Strange are the trivialities that combine together for stupendous
+results.  Had Sir Francis adhered to his first and laudable resolve what
+widespread ruin might have been averted.  But he did not.  He abandoned
+it for the sake of peace, of course with the best intentions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+TAKEN AT THE REBOUND.
+
+When Philip at length managed to leave his room and hobble downstairs
+with the aid of a stick and one of the hotel porters he realised to the
+full that it was high time he did.
+
+He realised further that all thoughts of mountain climbing, for this
+season at any rate, must be abandoned.  Not that he cared about that,
+however; for after more than a week of confinement to his room, and that
+in the loveliest of summer weather, all inclination towards the reaping
+of further mountaineering laurels seemed to have left him.  His main
+ambition now was to get well as soon as possible and move away to fresh
+scenes.  The lovely aspect of mountain and glacier shining in the golden
+summer sun was now as gall to him, intertwined as it was with
+recollections of Eden before his wholly unexpected and crushing
+expulsion therefrom.  The bright laughter and cheerful voices of parties
+setting forth or returning--on sightseeing bent--grated irritably on his
+nerves, for it brought back to him the time so recent, but now divided
+by such an impassable gulf, when he himself was among the cheeriest of
+the cheery.  So now as he sat in his comfortable cane chair--his injured
+foot propped up on another--in a sunny spot outside the hotel, his
+thoughts were very bitter.
+
+Needless to say they ran upon the subject which had afforded him ample
+food for reflection during these long days of his irksome and enforced
+stagnation.  To the first blank and heart-wrung sense of his loss had
+succeeded by degrees a feeling of angry resentment.  Alma had meted out
+to him very harsh measure.  She had allowed him no opportunity of
+explanation, and surely he was entitled to that amount of consideration,
+not to say fair play.  But no.  She had condemned him unheard.  After
+all Fordham was right.  The less one had to do with the other sex the
+better.  It was all alike.  And a very unwonted sneer clouded the beauty
+of the ordinarily bright and sunny face.
+
+This, no doubt, was very good reasoning--would have been had the
+reasoner but numbered a dozen or so more years of life.  In that case it
+would doubtlessly have afforded him abundant consolation.  As things
+were, however, he was fain to own to himself that it afforded him very
+little indeed.  However he might pretend to himself that Alma was not
+worth wrecking his life over, the poor fellow knew perfectly well that
+were she to appear at that moment before him with but one kind word on
+her lips, all his rankling resentment and cynical communings would be
+scattered to the winds.  Those wretched Glovers--underbred, shop-keeping
+adventurers as they were--to come there wrecking his life by their
+infernal malice!  And then as in a mental flash he compared the two
+girls, the pendulum swung back again, and he reflected that however
+harsh and peremptory had been Alma's way of looking at things, he had
+got no more than he had deserved.  But this idea, while it brushed aside
+the flimsy attempts he had been making to harden his heart towards her,
+left him rather more unhappy than before.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Well, Mr Orlebar, I am glad to see you down at last," said a very
+pleasing feminine voice, whose owner suddenly appeared round an angle of
+the house.
+
+"You're awfully good, Mrs Daventer," he replied.  "But if you're only
+half as glad to see me down as I am to be down, why then you're--
+you're--er--still more good."
+
+"It must be delightful to feel yourself out of doors again, after being
+shut up all that time," she went on.  "Still, it won't do to hurry
+matters.  You must make up your mind to have a little patience."
+
+"Just what I'm doing.  Job isn't in it with me for that quality."
+
+She laughed--and a very attractive laugh it was.  So Phil thought, and
+he reckoned himself a judge.  "A devilish nice woman, and a devilish
+nice-looking one," had been his verdict to Fordham, and he saw no reason
+to retract any part of it now.
+
+"I shouldn't give you credit for much of the quality at any rate," she
+said.  "You seem far too impulsive.  For instance, just now you were
+looking anything but philosophical.  However, it is slow work being a
+prisoner, and a lonely prisoner too.  What has become of your friend?"
+
+"Who?  Fordham?  Oh, he's away for a few days.  He and Wentworth have
+gone over to Chamounix by the glacier route.  I miss the chap no end.  I
+believe he'd have put it off if I had wanted him to, but, as it is, I've
+been feeling a selfish dog keeping him in the best part of the day
+yarning to me, when he might have been having a high old time on his own
+account.  I tell you what it is, Mrs Daventer, he's a rare good chap is
+Fordham."
+
+This was amusing--rich, in fact.  She did not even turn away her head to
+conceal a bitter curl of the lips, for she flattered herself she was
+past showing the faintest sign of feeling.  But a ruling passion is
+difficult to conceal entirely, especially when it consists of a surging,
+deadly hatred.
+
+"Is he?" she said vacantly.
+
+"Rather.  I see you don't believe it though.  But, between ourselves, he
+is a good bit of a woman-hater.  So I suppose the sex instinctively
+reciprocates the compliment.  But, I say, Mrs Daventer.  It was awfully
+good of you to come and see me as you did--and the other people too,"
+added Phil, in the half-shamefaced way in which nineteen men out of
+twenty are wont to express their thanks or appreciation as regards a
+kindness rendered.
+
+"That was nothing.  Mrs Wharton's very nice, isn't she?  I'm very sorry
+they're leaving to-morrow."
+
+"Are they?  I hope I shall see them again before they go.  Wharton's a
+rare good sort although he's a parson.  Don't look shocked.  I'm afraid
+I don't get on with `the cloth' over well.  I daresay it's my own fault
+though."
+
+"I daresay it is," she returned with a laugh.
+
+During the latter days of his captivity Philip had not been without
+visitors.  The British subject, when outside his (or her) native land,
+is the proprietor of a far more abundant and spontaneous fount of
+the milk of human kindness than when hedged around by the
+stovepipe-hat-cum-proper-introductions phase of respectability within
+the confines of the same.  Several of the people sojourning in the hotel
+had looked in upon the weary prisoner to lighten the irksomeness of his
+confinement with a little friendly chat, and foremost among them had
+been Mrs Daventer.
+
+"Are you doing anything particular this morning, Mrs Daventer?
+Because, if not, I wish you'd get a chair--I can't get one for you, you
+see--and sit and talk to me," said Phil, in that open, taking manner of
+his that rendered him almost as attractive to the other sex as his
+handsome face and fine physique.
+
+"Well, I suppose I must," she answered with a smile.
+
+"It would be a real act of Christian charity.  And--"
+
+He broke off in confused amazement, caused by the arrival of a third
+person upon the scene.  "A good-looking girl," was his mental verdict.
+"Wentworth was right, by Jove!"
+
+"Laura, dear, see if there are any chairs in the hall," said Mrs
+Daventer.  "Thanks, love," she went on, as her daughter returned,
+bearing a light garden-chair.  "Mr Orlebar claims that it is a
+Christian duty on our part to sit and gossip with him.  I suppose one
+must concede him the privileges of an invalid."
+
+"I am glad your ankle is so much better," said the girl, quite
+unaffectedly, but with the slightest possible tinge of shyness, which
+added an indescribable piquancy to her rich Southern type of beauty.
+"It must be so hideously trying to see every one else going about
+enjoying themselves, while you feel yourself literally chained."
+
+"That's just how it is," assented Philip.  "And they say it's the best
+climbing season that has been known for ten years."
+
+"You are a great climber, I suppose?"
+
+"No.  A rank greenhorn, in fact.  The Rothhorn was the first--the first
+real high thing--I've done, and it seems likely to be the last."
+
+"We heard about your accident the morning after we arrived.  It made
+quite a little excitement."
+
+"I suppose so," said Philip, with a laugh.  "`Terrible tragedy.  A cow
+fell over the bridge and broke one horn,' as the country reporter put
+it."
+
+"Get yourself a chair, dear," said Mrs Daventer.  And as the girl moved
+away with that intent, Philip could not, for the life of him, keep his
+glance from following the graceful, lithe gait.  She was a
+splendid-looking girl, he told himself.
+
+"How is it you are not away among the glaciers this lovely day, Miss
+Daventer?" he asked, when she had returned.
+
+"I don't know.  I suppose I felt lazy.  Some of the people near us at
+table have gone up to the Theodule to-day, and wanted me to go with
+them.  But I should have had to decide last night; besides, they were
+going to make such a woefully early start.  So I didn't want to tie
+myself."
+
+"Quite right," said Philip.  "That early start side of the question
+takes half the edge off the fun of any undertaking here.  Still, once
+you are squarely out it's all right, and you feel all the better for
+it."
+
+"Always provided you have had a fair night's rest.  But these big hotels
+are apt to be very noisy--people getting up at all hours and taking
+abundant pains to render the whole house aware of the fact."
+
+"Rather," said Philip.  "Every one turns in ridiculously early, but
+what's the good of that when just as you are dropping off to sleep
+somebody comes into the room above you and practices for the next day's
+walk during about two hours, in a pair of regulation nail boots?  I've
+been having a bad time of late.  Getting no exercise in the daytime, I
+find it hard to sleep at night, and there's always some one stumping
+about overhead.  I was obliged to ring up the night porter at last and
+send him up to inform the gentleman overhead that I should take it as
+very kind of him if he would defer his rehearsal of step-cutting,
+jumping crevasses, etc, until he could practise upon real ice the next
+day.  Well, the porter went, for I heard his voice through the floor.  I
+asked him in the morning if the gentleman had sworn a great deal or only
+a little.  `Gentleman?' he said, in mild surprise.  `It was not a
+gentleman, it was a lady.'"
+
+"Wasn't she awfully sorry?" said Laura.
+
+"She may have been, but she didn't seem so.  By way of impressing me
+with the honour I ought to consider it to be lulled to sleep by the
+tread of her fairy feet, I am bound to record that she made rather more
+row than before."
+
+"Who was it?  Do you know?"
+
+"I don't.  I had my suspicions, but they were only suspicions."
+
+"Well, it couldn't have been either of us," laughed Mrs Daventer, "for
+we happen to be on the same floor.  But to whom do your suspicions
+point?"
+
+"I fancy it must have been one of those two grim spinsters who have been
+keeping me supplied with sacred literature."
+
+"No--have they?" said the girl, a swift laugh darting from her dark
+eyes.  "I know who you mean, though I don't know their names.  They are
+dreadful old people.  I notice at table they never have the same
+next-door neighbours two days running.  I suppose they force their ideas
+on that head upon everybody, judging from the scraps of conversation
+that float across."
+
+"I ought to be grateful to them," went on Philip.  "Every day I found a
+fresh tract slipped under my door.  The titles, too, were uniformly
+appropriated to the sojourner in Zermatt.  `Where are you going to climb
+to-day?' or `Looking Upward.'  `The Way that is Dark and Slippery,'
+which reminded me of that high moraine coming down from the Rothhorn the
+other night.  But what really did hurt my feelings was one labelled,
+`_On whomsoever it Shall Fall it shall Grind him to Powder_.'  It seemed
+too personal.  I felt that they were poking fun at my misfortune, don't
+you know, and it didn't seem kind.  But it occurred to me that they
+meant well.  They meant to amuse me, and assuredly they succeeded.  By
+the way, these interesting documents bore the injunction: `When done
+with, pass this on to a friend.'  Wherefore, Miss Daventer, I shall feel
+it my duty to endow you with the whole lot."
+
+"I must decline the honour.  I couldn't think of depriving you of so
+valuable a possession," was the laughing reply.  "But we are wandering
+dreadfully from the point.  Why do you think it was one of those old
+things who was walking about over your head?"
+
+"It is only bare suspicion, mind, and founded upon circumstantial
+evidence--acreage, I mean.  I have become observant since my enforced
+detention, and while contemplating the populace--from a three-storey
+window--I have noticed that nobody else could show such an acreage of
+shoeleather."
+
+"Your imprisonment has rendered you satirical, Mr Orlebar," said Mrs
+Daventer, in mild reproof, though at heart joining in the laugh
+wherewith the remark was received by her daughter, as, indeed, nineteen
+women out of twenty are sure to do whenever a man makes a joke at the
+expense of another member of their own sex.
+
+Thus they sat, exchanging the airiest of gossip, laughing over mere
+nothings.  Then the luncheon bell rang.  Philip's countenance fell.  It
+was surprising how soon the morning had fled.  He said as much--but
+dolefully.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" said the elder lady, as she rose to go
+indoors.
+
+"Oh, nothing.  Only that I shall be left all alone again."
+
+"Poor thing!" said Laura, mischievously.  "But perhaps, if you promise
+to be very entertaining, we'll come and take care of you again.  Shall
+we, mother?"
+
+"Perhaps.  And now, Mr Orlebar, is there anything you want?  Anything I
+can tell them to do for you--or to bring you out?"
+
+"You're awfully good, Mrs Daventer.  They know they've got to bring me
+something to pick at out here; but they may have forgotten.  Yes, if you
+don't mind just sending Alphonse here.  And--I say--Mrs Daventer--
+you'll--you'll come around again presently yourselves--won't you?"
+
+"Perhaps--only perhaps!" answered Laura for her mother, with a
+mischievous, tantalising glance, which, however, said as plainly as
+possible, "Why, you old goose, you know we will."
+
+His face brightened.  "Thanks awfully," he mumbled.  And then, as they
+left him, the sun did not seem to shine quite so brightly as before.
+However, he would not be left alone for long.
+
+What had become of all the dismal and bitter reflections which had been
+crowding in upon him when he first took up his position in that chair
+barely two hours ago?  Well, the cause of them existed still, but
+somehow, however reluctant to own it he might be, there was no
+disguising altogether a sneaking idea that the sting might be dulled.
+Somehow, too, his anxiety to be able to get about had become greatly
+enhanced, but not so his eagerness to seek out fresh scenes.  That,
+curiously enough, had proportionately abated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+ONE NAIL DRIVES OUT ANOTHER.
+
+"That there are as good fish in the sea as any that ever came out may or
+may not be a sound proverb, but it's one that our friend Orlebar seems
+to believe in--eh, Fordham?"
+
+Beyond a grunt, his companion made no answer, and Wentworth continued--
+
+"Just look at the fellow now.  The widow and daughter mean `biz,' if
+ever any one did.  And Orlebar is such an easy fish to hook, provided
+they don't allow him too much play.  If they do, the chances are ten to
+one he'll break away and rise to another fly."
+
+It was a warm, sunshiny Sunday afternoon, about a fortnight after
+Philip's first appearance downstairs.  The two thus conversing were
+strolling along the road which leads to the Zmutt-thal, and in the green
+meadows beyond the roaring, churning Visp, walked three figures which,
+in spite of the distance, they had no sort of difficulty in identifying
+with the objects under discussion.
+
+"Yes, Orlebar is a fish that requires prompt landing," pursued
+Wentworth.  "They have had a fortnight to do it in.  If they don't
+effectually gaff him within the next week, they may give it up.  Some
+one else will happen along, and he will think it time for a change.  The
+fair Laura will get left.  Do you a bet on it, Fordham, if you like."
+
+"Not worth betting on, is it?" was the languid reply.  "I have done what
+I could for the boy--kept him out of numberless snares and pitfalls.
+I'm a trifle tired of it now.  If he is such a fool as to plunge in
+headlong--why, he must."
+
+In spite of this admirable indifference, the speaker was, in fact,
+watching the game keenly, and so far it was progressing entirely to his
+own satisfaction.  Did his female accomplice--in obedience to her better
+instincts, or to a natural tendency to revolt against dictation--show
+any signs of slackness, there he was, ruthless, unswerving, at hand to
+remind her of the consequences of failure.  She must succeed or fail.
+In the latter alternative no palliation that she had done her best would
+be admitted, and this she knew.  No such excuse--indeed, no excuse--
+would avail to save her and hers from the consequences of such failure,
+and the result would be dire.  She was in this man's power--bound hand
+and foot.  She might as well expect mercy from a famished tiger as one
+shade of ruth from him did the task which he had set her to fulfil fail
+by a hair's breadth.  And she judged correctly.
+
+Not by accident was Fordham strolling there that afternoon.  The
+strongest of all passions--in a strong nature--the vindictive, vengeful
+hate of years thoroughly awakened in him, he watched the puppets dancing
+to his wires.  His accomplice must be kept alive to the fact that his
+eye was ever upon her, that she dare not do, or leave undone, anything,
+however trivial, that might risk the game.  And now his companion's
+remarks only went to confirm his previously formed decision.  It was
+time the curtain should be rung down upon the first act of the three-act
+drama--time that the second should begin.
+
+"The most susceptible youngster that ever lived!  I believe you're
+right, Wentworth," he pursued, in reply to one of the aforesaid remarks.
+"And the worst of it is he takes them all so seriously--throws himself
+into the net headlong.  Then, when he finds himself caught--tied tight
+so that no amount of kicking and swearing will get him out--he'll raise
+a great outcry and think himself very hardly used.  They all do it.  And
+I'm always warning him.  I warned him against this very girl who's
+trying all she knows to hook him now."
+
+"The deuce you did.  I should be curious to know in what terms," said
+Wentworth.
+
+"In what terms?  I preached to him; I spake parables unto him; I
+propounded the choicest and most incisive metaphors.  No use--all thrown
+away.  `A woman, my dear chap,' I said--`an attractive woman, that is--
+is like a new and entertaining book, delightful--for a time.  But when
+you have got from cover to cover you don't begin the book again and go
+through it a second time, and then a third, and so on.  Even the few
+books that will bear going through twice, and then only after a decent
+interval, will not keep you in literary pabulum all your life.  So it is
+with a woman.  However attractive, however entertaining she may be, she
+is bound to pall sooner or later--some few later, but the vast majority,
+like the general run of books--sooner.  So that in chaining yourself to
+one woman all your life, as you seem bent upon doing, you are showing
+about as much judgment as you would be in condemning yourself to read
+one book all your life.  Less, indeed, for, if the book bores you, you
+can chuck it out of the window; but if the woman bores you, or leads you
+the life of a pariah dog, you can't chuck her out of the window, because
+if you do you'll likely be hanged, and she certainly will see you so
+before she'll walk out of the door, once in it.  Philip, my son, be
+warned.'"
+
+"And how did he take that undoubtedly sound counsel?" said Wentworth,
+with a laugh.
+
+"Oh, abused me, of course--swore I was a brute and a savage--in fact, he
+rather thought I must be the devil himself.  That's always the way.
+Show a man the precipice he's going to walk over, and ten to one he
+turns round and damns you for not minding your own business.  And as a
+general rule he's right.  Talking of precipices, Wentworth, did you hear
+that man's idea at _table d'hote_ when we were talking of the difficult
+state the Dent Blanche was in this year?"
+
+"No.  It must have been after I went out."
+
+"Why, he suggested, in the most matter-of-fact way, fixing a hawser from
+the top of it to the glacier below.  Gaudy idea, wasn't it, doing the
+Dent Blanche by means of a hawser?  And, just as we had done guffawing
+over the notion, he added that the only drawback to the scheme was that
+somebody would be sure to creep up and steal it.  Whereupon that
+sheep-faced parson on the other side of the table cut in with a very
+aggrieved and much hurt amendment to the effect that he was sure the
+mountain people were much too honest.  We all roared in such wise as to
+draw the attention of the whole room upon us, including an overheard
+remark from one of the tract-dispensing old cats that some people were
+never happy unless they were making a noise--even upon a Sunday."
+
+Philip meanwhile was assuredly doing everything to justify the
+observations of our two misogynists aforesaid.  The expression of his
+face as he walked beside Laura Daventer, the tone of his voice as he
+talked to her, told quite enough.  The past fortnight of daily
+companionship had done its work.  Already there was a familiar,
+confidential ring in his tone--a semi-caressing expression in his eyes,
+which told unmistakably that he more than half considered her his own
+property.  And what of Laura herself?
+
+She, for her part, seemed disposed to take kindly to this state of
+affairs.  She had tacitly acquiesced in the gradual proprietorship he
+had set up over her--had even abetted his efforts to glare off any
+presumptuous intruder who should seek to infringe his monopoly.  The
+present arrangement suited her very well--on the whole, very well
+indeed.
+
+"Do you really mean, Mrs Daventer," Philip was saying, talking across
+Laura to her mother--"do you really mean you are going away at the end
+of this week?"
+
+"I'm afraid so.  We have been a long time abroad already, and we can't
+remain away from home for ever."
+
+"N-no, I suppose not," he assented, ruefully.  "But what on earth shall
+I do here when you're gone?"
+
+"Just what you did before we came," answered Laura, mischievously.
+"There are plenty more people here."
+
+"Just as if that's the same thing!  I don't believe I'll stay on myself.
+In fact, I should have gone back before now if it hadn't been for my
+confounded ankle."
+
+"And that same `confounded ankle' would have been a great deal more
+`confounded' but for us," rejoined Laura.  "You would have used it again
+too soon--much too soon--only we wouldn't let you.  You would have
+started up the Matterhorn, or done something equally insane, if we
+hadn't taken care of you and kept you quiet at home."
+
+There was more than a substratum of truth underlying this statement.
+The speaker had indeed done all she said.  To one of Phil's temperament
+it was infinitely more congenial to lounge through the days, sitting
+about in sequestered nooks in the fields and woods with a very
+attractive girl who chose to make much of him, than to undertake sterner
+forms of pastime in the company of such unsympathetic spirits as Fordham
+and Wentworth.  And therein lay an epitome of the last fortnight.  These
+two had been thrown together.  When Philip's ankle had improved
+sufficiently to admit of moderate locomotion it was Laura who had been
+his constant companion during his earlier and experimental hobbles.
+Indeed, it is to be feared that the sly dog had more than once
+exaggerated his lameness, in justification of an appeal for support on
+the ground of the insufficiency of that afforded by his stick, though
+somehow, when the said support was very prettily accorded, the weight
+which he threw upon his charming prop was of the very lightest.  So the
+bright summer days of that fortnight had passed one by one, and it was
+astonishing what a large proportion of the hours composing each had been
+spent _a deux_.
+
+Thus had come about that good understanding, that sense of
+proprietorship definite on the part of the one, dissimulated, yet
+tangible and existent, on that of the other, which reigned between them.
+But if she intended that proprietorship to become permanent--in fact,
+lifelong, neither by word or sign did Laura do anything to proclaim such
+intention.  Kind, sympathetic, companionable as she was, she could not
+with fairness be accused of doing anything to "throw herself at his
+head."  She was a perfect model of tact.  When he waxed effusive, as it
+was Phil's nature to do upon very slight provocation, she would meet him
+with a stand-offishness the more disconcerting that it was wholly
+unexpected.  Sometimes, even, she would invent some excuse for leaving
+him alone for half a day--just long enough to cause him grievously to
+miss her, yet not long enough to render him disgusted and resentful.
+But withal she had managed that her presence should be very necessary to
+him, and now her forethought and cleverness had their reward, for she
+knew she could bring him to her feet any moment she chose.
+
+"Yes, I should have gone back before now," repeated Philip.  "I sha'n't
+stay on after you leave.  It'll be too dismal all round.  By Jove!  I
+don't see why--er--why we shouldn't go back together.  It would be
+awfully jolly for me having some one to travel with, and I could help
+you looking after the boxes and things--eh, Mrs Daventer?"
+
+"But what about your friend, Mr Orlebar?  He doesn't want to go back
+yet; and, even if he did, I think I see him travelling with a pair of
+unprotected females."
+
+"Fordham?  Oh, he and Wentworth have got together now, and they'll be
+swarming up every blessed alp within fifty miles around before they
+think of moving from here.  No; on the whole I think my escort may be of
+use to you--in fact, I think you ought to have it."
+
+"I believe ours is far more likely to be of use to you--in your present
+state," answered Mrs Daventer, with a smile.  "Well, Mr Orlebar, I was
+going to ask you to spend a few days with us on your return, and if you
+care to do so, you may as well come straight home with us now--that is,
+of course, unless you have anything more important or attractive among
+your plans."
+
+But this he eagerly protested he had not.  Nothing would give him
+greater pleasure, and so on.
+
+"Ours is a very quiet little place on the Welsh coast," went on Mrs
+Daventer.  "I don't know how we shall amuse you--or rather how you will
+amuse yourself."
+
+Here again Philip raised his voice in protest.  He did not want amusing.
+He was sure it would be quite delightful.  He was tired of the
+abominable racket of hotel life.  Quiet, and plenty of it, was just the
+thing he wanted.  It would do him more good than anything else in the
+world.
+
+"Well, then, we may look upon that as settled," was the gracious
+rejoinder--and Mrs Daventer could be very gracious, very fascinating,
+when she chose.  "If you are half as pleased with your stay as we shall
+be to have you, we shall consider ourselves fortunate.  And now, Laura,
+I think we had better be turning back.  I really must put in an
+appearance at church this afternoon, especially as I missed it this
+morning and last Sunday as well."
+
+The girl's face clouded.  "Why, mother, the best part of the afternoon
+is only just beginning," she objected.  "Such a heavenly afternoon as it
+is, too."
+
+"Let church slide, Mrs Daventer," urged Phil, impulsively.  "Besides,
+if you're going away what does it matter!"
+
+"That is a very earthly view to take of it, you unprincipled boy?" was
+the laughing reply.  "Never mind, I needn't drag you two children back
+with me; so continue your walk while I go and sacrifice myself to save
+appearances.  Perhaps I'll meet you somewhere about here afterwards, as
+you come back."
+
+"I do think that mother of yours is one of the sweetest women I ever
+met--Laura," said Phil, as they turned to resume their stroll.
+
+The girl's face flushed with pleasure.  "You never said a truer thing
+than that," she replied.
+
+"Rather not.  Hallo! she'll be late.  At least a quarter of an hour's
+walk, and there's that cracked old tin-kettle whanging away already."
+
+A bell sounded upon the clear, pine-scented air.  It was not a melodious
+bell--rather did it resemble the homely implement irreverently
+suggested.  Then they continued their walk through the sunlit pastures;
+but Philip, whose ankle was by no means cured, began to limp.
+
+"Stop.  We must not go any further," said Laura.  "You have been walking
+too much to-day as it is.  We will sit down and rest."
+
+"Let us get up on top of these rocks then," he suggested, as their walk
+had brought them to a pile of broken rocks overgrown with rhododendrons
+and bilberry bushes.  These they clambered up, and came to a shut-in,
+mossy nook.  One side was riven by a deep fissure through which a
+torrent roared.  It was the very spot which had witnessed that stormy
+interview between Fordham and Mrs Daventer.  Strange, indeed, was the
+irony of fate which had led these two hither.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Laura," said Philip, throwing himself upon the
+ground; "it was awfully jolly of your mother to give me that invitation.
+We'll have no end of a good time down there together--won't we, dear?"
+and reaching out his hand he closed it upon hers.  But this, after a
+momentary hesitation, she drew away.
+
+"I hope we will," she answered, and over the dark, _piquante_ face there
+crept a most becoming flush.  Very attractive too at that moment was
+that same face, with its luminous eyes and delicate, refined beauty.
+Still to the physiognomist there was a certain hardness about the ripe
+red lips which was not altogether satisfactory.  But this fault he who
+now looked upon them failed to realise.
+
+He turned round quickly and fixed his eyes upon her face.  There was
+something in her tone, her gesture, that disquieted him.
+
+"Why, Laura! what is the matter?  You speak as if you did not believe we
+would--have a good time, I mean.  Why should we not?  We shall be
+together, and I don't know what I should do if you were to go away from
+me now--darling."
+
+"Stop, Phil.  Don't say any more--at least not here," she added
+hurriedly.  "You are much too impulsive, and you don't know me yet,
+although you think you do.  Yes, we will have a good time--but--don't
+begin to get serious, that's a good boy."
+
+Philip stared.  But her unexpected rejoinder had its effect.  Did she
+intend that it should?  The fervour of his tone deepened as he replied--
+
+"I won't say a word that you would rather I did not, dear.  Not now, at
+any rate."
+
+"You had better not, believe me," she replied, in a tone that was almost
+a caress, and with a smile that set all his pulses tingling.  Very
+alluring she looked, her dark beauty set off by her dress of creamy
+white, by the languorous attitude, so harmonious with the sunshine and
+surroundings.  Overhead and around the great mountains towered, the
+mighty cone of the giant Matterhorn dominating them all as he frowned
+aloft from the liquid blue; the dull thunder of the seething Visp
+churning its way through emerald pasture-lands; the picturesque brown
+roofs of the _chalets_; the aromatic scent of the pines--all harmonising
+in idyllic beauty with the figure to which they constituted a frame, a
+background.  Did it recall that other soft golden summer evening, not so
+very long ago either, when he listened to much the same answer framed by
+another pair of lips?  Who may tell?  For one nail drives out another,
+and a heart taken at the rebound is easily caught.  Yet assuredly it was
+a strange, a grim, irony of fate, that which brought these two hither,
+to this spot of all others, to enact this scene.  But in such cycles do
+the events of life move.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+THE DROOP OF A SUNSHADE.
+
+Alma Wyatt was at home again--was once more an inmate of the
+much-decried semi-detached which was an exact counterpart of all the
+Rosebanks, and Hollybanks, and Belmonts, and Heathfields, which go to
+line the regulation suburban road.
+
+The said regulation road was ankle-deep in dust--even the foliage of the
+trees and garden patches, which fronted each monotonous row of villas,
+was dried and gasping, and sprinkled with the same powdery substance.
+The atmosphere was of the stuffy, moist, enervating character
+inseparable from low-lying riverside resorts.  Small wonder, then, that
+Alma, at home again now, should find herself drawing bitter contrasts
+between commonplace, cockneyfied Surbiton, and the bounteous glories of
+the mighty Alps--the thunder of the mountain torrent, and the cool
+fragrance of the shadowy pine forest; the cloudless skies and the
+soaring peaks; the sheeny ice-slopes, and the blue, castellated masses
+of the _seracs_, and, not least, the bracing exhilaration of the air.
+
+"At home again!  At _home_ again!"--as she kept bitterly repeating to
+herself.  At home again, to enact the part of a butt for her mother's
+nagging and ever-discontented tongue; at home again, to fall into the
+old _role_ of self-obliteration, to hold herself in readiness to
+sacrifice every inclination of her own, to devote all her time, all her
+energies, to the convenience of the family idol, her younger sister, and
+especially to look for no appreciation of, or thanks for, the same.  And
+such is home!
+
+How her soul sickened as she looked around on the mediocrity of it all--
+the flat, ditchwater circumstances of life, the stagnation, the deadly
+monotony.  There was the same narrow round, the same bi-weekly run up to
+Town on shopping intent, the same local gossip and feeble attempts at
+entertainment, the same evening visits from the same bevy of Constance's
+admirers--City youths mostly, all as like each other as the immaculacy
+of their collars, the sheen of their hats, the lack of expression in
+their countenances and the inanity of their conversation, could render
+them.  These would redeem the time with some feeble singing and feebler
+wit, and evening after evening would Alma be called upon to sit it all
+out and endeavour to make herself agreeable.  Constance on such
+occasions was in her element, but to the sucking Couttses and Barings
+and Rothschilds Alma was a stumbling-block and a wet blanket.
+
+"Sort of garl, baai Jove, who ought to have a chappie built to her
+ordar, don't cher know.  Ordinary fellar not good enough," the principal
+dry wag of the coterie was wont to remark.
+
+When she had told Philip Orlebar she detested the place and everything
+to do with it, Alma had spoken no more than the literal truth.  But if
+she detested it then, it strikes her now as ten times more detestable.
+The suburban mediocrity, the much-belauded river--a mere muddy
+playground for 'Arry and 'Arriet--pall upon her with nauseous monotony.
+Never did the hideous Cockney twang grate more offensively upon her
+ears, never did the obtrusive vulgarity of the low-class Briton--the
+most irredeemably vulgar animal in the world--revolt her sensibilities
+as now, when contrasted with the pleasant speech and innately refined
+manners of the same class of Continental peoples.  Assuredly with no
+feeling of gladness or even contentment did Alma Wyatt return home.
+This may have been wrong; it was undoubtedly lamentable.  But, under the
+circumstances, it was very natural.
+
+We should be sorry to make oath that apart from this pardonable
+discontent with her most uncongenial surroundings there was not another
+phase of canker eating into her mind and destroying its peace.  We have,
+elsewhere, and more than once, emphasised the fact that a certain young
+reprobate, hight Philip Orlebar, was one of those dangerous persons of
+whom the opposite sex is prone to become very fond.  Now Alma's
+opportunities of doing so had been exceptional and many--and, in point
+of fact, she had so become.
+
+Often now, in the stagnant monotony of her home life, does that bright
+young face rise up before her, as she first saw it, gazing with scarcely
+disguised admiration upon her own, as she has so frequently, so
+constantly seen it since--the sunny blue eyes, with their straight,
+frank glance, lighting up with a world of welcoming gladness when
+meeting her for the first time in the day or after a few hours' absence.
+She sees it, too, as she saw it in the black, driving cloud, high up on
+the perilous rock _arete_ of the Cape au Moine, anxious on her account,
+otherwise fearless and resolute--she sees it, as she saw it in the
+sinking sunshine of that same day, tender, apprehensive, as its owner
+hung upon the reply which her lips should frame--but, oh, so attractive!
+Again, she sees it as she saw it last--crushed, hopeless, despairing,
+and as it appears thus before her the proud, self-contained nature
+partially breaks down, and, being alone, she cannot repress a convulsive
+sob or two, and a few tears damp the handkerchief which she passes
+rapidly over her eyes.
+
+Does she ever regret--repent of her haste in thus giving him his
+_conge_!  Does it ever occur to her that she may have judged him
+hastily, harshly--in fact, unheard?  Well, her nature is a fearfully
+proud, a fearfully sensitive one.  Did he not put a public slight upon
+her, make her the laughing stock of a number of nondescript people?  Yet
+even here she cannot further justify herself in the idea that he had
+merely been amusing himself at her expense.  The feeling was there, warm
+and genuine--as to that there could be no mistake whatever.
+Characteristically, however, she proceeds to impale him upon the other
+horn of the dilemma.  He had shown weakness.  If that other girl had
+really any claim upon him, if there was really any engagement between
+them, he ought to have broken it off definitely and decisively before
+presuming to offer his affection to herself.  Yes, he had been guilty of
+lamentable weakness--an unpardonable fault in Alma Wyatt's eyes.
+
+There is even more behind, however, than all this.  On hearing of his
+accident, did she not write him a letter of condolence--a really kind
+letter of sympathy and interest, asking to be informed how he got on--a
+letter, indeed, in which it was just possible for any man not actually a
+born fool to "read between the lines," affording him, with a little
+diplomacy, a chance of crying "Peccavi," and eventually reinstating
+himself?  But how had he answered it?  He had not answered it at all!
+
+No, from that day to this he had not answered it.  There could be no
+explanation.  She had learned indirectly through those who were in the
+same hotel at the time, that his accident, though tiresome, was not
+serious--never sufficiently serious to incapacitate him for writing.
+And she had been at Zinal long enough to have heard from him over and
+over again; added to which, every letter which had arrived there for her
+uncle and aunt, even some time after their departure, had been
+scrupulously forwarded and safely received.  The postal arrangements
+could not be to blame; clearly, then, he had deliberately and of set
+purpose elected to take no notice of her letter.
+
+Well, that dream was over.  She felt a little hard--a little bitter.  It
+was no easy matter to gain Alma's good opinion, but of Philip Orlebar
+she had managed to become very fond--more so, in fact, than she herself
+had suspected at the time.  And sometimes now a satirical smile would
+curve her lips as she reflected bitterly that after all he had certainly
+shown no weakness in choosing to ignore her own gracious advance, and
+the reflection did not tend in any degree to restore either peace or
+contentment to herself.
+
+Bearing in mind Alma's character and general temperament, it need hardly
+be said that concerning this, the great event of her trip abroad, she
+let fall neither word nor hint.  She would, indeed, sometimes smile
+bitterly to herself as she pictured her mother's wrath and disgust did
+the latter become aware that she had refused the heir to a baronetcy--a
+poor one certainly, but still a baronetcy.  Why, life would thenceforth
+cease to be worth living.  It would be the last straw.  And for this, in
+her heart of hearts, she admitted that, looking at it from a strictly
+mundane point of view, there was some excuse.  The chances matrimonial,
+to a girl situated as she was, were poor enough, in fact they were
+mainly confined to the City youths of mediocre lineage and strictly
+limited incomes, who constituted her sister's sworn admirers, or a
+delicate handed and mustachioed curate who had for some time evinced an
+unmistakable partiality for herself.  Still she was nothing if not
+characteristic.  She was not going to sacrifice her clearly-formed
+judgment upon the altar of expediency.  So she strove to dismiss Philip
+Orlebar from her mind, and to fall back into her old groove with what
+contentment she might.
+
+That Alma did not "get on well at home" was not surprising--indeed, the
+wonder would have come in had things been the other way.  The
+problematical amalgamation of oil and water was a trifle more
+conceivable than the existence of any cordiality or even a good
+understanding between herself and her mother.  For the latter was not a
+lovable person.  To start with, her brain power was of the scantiest
+order, her mind of the narrowest; it follows, therefore, that she was
+intensely, aggressively obstinate.  And in the art of nagging she was a
+past mistress.  She was one of those women to whom battle is as the air
+they breathe, and she had a knack of starting a fray gently,
+insidiously, sorrowfully even, as though marvelling herself that there
+should ensue any hostilities at all.  Her younger daughter, Constance,
+then just eighteen, was an excellent replica of her in disposition--that
+is to say, had not a single redeeming point in her character; and,
+_pace_ the gushing philanthropist, there are such persons.  But the
+girl, with her blue eyes and smooth skin, her golden hair and fresh
+complexion, was extremely pretty; and in stating this we have said all
+there is to be said for her; for as a set-off against these advantages
+she was selfish, wilful, and conceited to the last degree, as, indeed,
+was only natural, seeing that from her birth upward she had been
+thoroughly and consistently spoiled.
+
+There were those who wondered whence Alma had inherited her fine
+character.  Those in a position to speak--old General Wyatt for
+instance--declared that she had inherited all her father's good
+qualities and none of her mother's bad ones, whereas in the case of
+Constance the positions were exactly reversed.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Alma, I want you to get on your hat, quick, and come along up the
+river," cried Constance, bursting in upon her sister one bright summer
+afternoon.  The latter had sought out the coolest corner of the stuffy
+little drawing-room, and was busily engaged in the--to her in her then
+frame of mind--very congenial task of sticking a number of Alpine views
+into an album.  She had a touch of headache, and was not in the most
+amiable frame of mind herself.  In fact the above invitation struck
+within her no responsive chord, and she said as much.
+
+"Of course!" snapped the younger girl.  "Isn't that always the way!
+Here one has been indoors the whole day, and directly it gets cool
+enough to move you say you wont.  Just because you know I want to.
+Well--well.  One never can get to the bottom of the selfishness of some
+people."
+
+"Speak for yourself, Constance!" returned Alma, quickly but quietly.
+"Does it never strike you that I may now and then feel tired, or
+disinclined for exertion.  And I certainly feel that way this
+afternoon."
+
+But the other's rejoinder was a shrill, jeering, ringing laugh.
+
+"All very well," she cried, flinging her sailor hat into the air and
+catching it.  "All very well.  But that won't go down with me.  Can't
+tear yourself away from those old Swiss photos.  I know all about it.
+By the way, which is the place you met _him_ in?" she jeered, going over
+to the table and feigning a deep interest in the views which lay ranged
+upon it ready for sticking in the book.  "Which was it?  You might as
+well tell a fellow, instead of being as close as Death itself.  Which
+was it, Alma, and what's he like?  You needn't keep it all so dark.  I
+won't let on."
+
+For the life of her, Alma could not restrain the colour which came into
+her face.  She was in a rather unamiable mood just then, as we have
+said, and now she felt stung to retort.
+
+"Whoever `he' is, or isn't, which is nearer the truth, I should be sorry
+to scrape together such a tenth-rate brigade as you seem to delight in
+gathering round you.  And now having shown how intensely and
+objectionably silly you can make yourself, Constance, how would it be to
+start off on your walk and leave me in peace?"
+
+"Well, that is a nice way to talk to your sister, I must say, Alma,"
+said Mrs Wyatt, entering the room in time to hear the latter half of
+the above remark.
+
+"Pooh, mother.  What odds!" cried Constance, maliciously.  "Alma's only
+mad because I chaffed her about her mysterious `mash.'"
+
+"My dear Connie, don't use those vulgar words," expostulated the mother,
+but in a very different tone to that employed when speaking to her elder
+daughter.  The younger went on--
+
+"It's a fact, mother.  Alma has made a mysterious `mash' while she was
+away.  She's as close as death about it, but I've drawn her at last.
+Don't you see now why she can't tear herself loose from her beloved
+Swiss views?  All enchanted land, don't you know."
+
+Mrs Wyatt sniffed, and up went her virtuous nose into the air, sure
+prelude to the coming storm.
+
+"Ah well, my dear," she said, in her most aggrieved and acidulated tone.
+"Ah well, we can't all have uncles and aunts to think that nothing's
+good enough for us, to take us frisking round the world.  And I'm afraid
+such changes are not for everybody's good.  Apt to make them return home
+more dissatisfied, more discontented than ever."  And emitting another
+sniff, Mrs Wyatt paused and awaited the reply which she expected and
+ardently hoped for.
+
+But it did not come.  More and more repellent to Alma did these almost
+daily wrangles become.  The girl's fine nature scorned and loathed them,
+recognising their tendency to degrade and lower the self-respect of all
+parties concerned; indeed, there were times when it was as much as she
+could do to keep herself from extending that scorn and loathing to their
+originator.
+
+Thus disappointed, Mrs Wyatt nagged on, saying a few of the most
+stinging things she could think of--stinging because unjust and untrue--
+to move her daughter to a reply; but still it didn't come.  At last,
+pushing back her chair, with a sigh Alma said--
+
+"Where do you want to go to, Constance?  I suppose I may as well go with
+you as"--stay here to be reviled, she was nearly saying, but put it--"as
+not."
+
+"All right, come along then," was the reply.  And this compliance having
+the effect of damming up the stream of the maternal eloquence, the two
+girls sallied forth.
+
+At any other time, moved by the sheer and wanton contrariety of her
+disposition, Constance would have declined to profit by this
+concession--would have delighted to stand by and deftly add fuel to the
+fire.  To-day, however, she had a reason for acting otherwise.  And as
+they gained the tow-path of the river that reason took definite shape--
+the shape of a youth.
+
+He who stood there waiting for them was a medium-sized youth of about
+twenty, a good-looking boy, on the whole, with dark hair and eyes of a
+Jewish type, but remarkable for nothing in particular, unless it was a
+full, free, and perfectly unaffected conceit--on which latter account
+Alma was inclined to dislike him; but among Constance's galaxy of
+adorers he held, just then, a foremost place.  He rejoiced in the name
+of Ernest Myers.
+
+That he was there by appointment was obvious.  He was clad in flannels,
+and in one hand held the bow rope of a light boat which he had drawn up
+to the side.  With a half smile, Alma understood now her sister's
+disgust when she had refused to come out.  She, Alma, was wanted to make
+a third.  Well, she didn't mind that.  If it amused Constance to carry
+on a harmless flirtation with young Myers--for it was not likely she
+could think seriously of a bank clerk with an extremely limited salary--
+why should she baulk her?  Besides, what were they but a couple of
+children, after all.  So she was gracious to the young man, and allowed
+Constance to monopolise his conversation and attentions to her heart's
+content, earning a subsequent encomium from her sister to the effect
+that when she chose she could be the very ideal of a perfect
+"gooseberry."
+
+They paddled up-stream in the evening sunshine.  Alma, by common
+consent, was voted to the tiller ropes, but as it was neither Saturday
+nor Sunday, and the personality of 'Arry was comparatively absent, her
+skill and attention were by no means overtaxed.  There was nothing in
+the clearness of one of the four and a half fine days, which go to make
+up an English summer, to suggest it--and she had often handled the
+tiller ropes since--nothing in the green glow of the emerald meadows, or
+the droop of the pollard willows, to recall the furious, misty, leaden
+surface of a storm-lashed lake.  Yet the recollection did come back to
+her that evening, and with unaccountable vividness, of the day when,
+tossing before the howling wrath of the tempest, they had given
+themselves up for lost.  Even the varying demeanour of the different
+members of their boat's crew, when thus brought face to face with
+death--from the cynical indifference of Fordham, to the abject, craven
+terror displayed by the chaplain, Scott--rose up clearly before her
+mind's eye, and looking back upon it all, and upon the days that
+followed, she was conscious of a strangely blank feeling as of a want
+unsupplied.
+
+"Hallo!--By Jove!  Look out!  Excuse me, Miss Wyatt.  But you as nearly
+as possible took us right bang into that boat."
+
+It was young Myers who spoke.  Upon Alma the warning was needed.  In the
+middle of his words she had pulled her right rope only just in time.
+But as the boat, which they had so narrowly grazed, shot by she obtained
+a distinct view of its occupants.  And they were two, the one a
+fine-looking, well-built specimen of young English manhood, who was
+sculling, the other a dark, handsome girl seated in the stern-sheets.
+
+The boats had passed each other, as it were, in a flash.  But in that
+brief moment the faces of both its occupants were vividly stamped upon
+Alma's vision.  And that of the man was that of none other than Philip
+Orlebar.
+
+She had seen him, but he had not recognised her.  He was bending forward
+talking to his companion in that airy, half-caressing, half-confidential
+tone that Alma knew so well.  She had seen him clearly and distinctly,
+but he had failed to recognise her, and for this the droop of her
+sunshade might account.
+
+The droop of a sunshade!  On such frail pivots do the fortunes of
+mankind turn!  But for the droop of that sunshade the end of this story
+might, we trow, have to be written very differently.
+
+"Why, Miss Wyatt!  You do look startled!" exclaimed young Myers.  "We
+are well out of it now, though, and a miss is as good as a mile when
+all's said and done.  But it was a near thing."
+
+He might well remark on her aspect.  The suddenness of the interruption,
+the unexpectedness of the recognition, had startled every trace of
+colour from her face.  Looking back, cautiously at first, and still
+under cover of the parasol, she gazed after the receding boat, now a
+long way astern.  Yes, it was him.  But who was his companion?  Well he
+had not been slow to console himself, she thought bitterly.
+
+"How very stupid of me," she replied.  "It was, as you say, a near
+thing.  I must not neglect my responsible duties again though."
+
+But while the two younger members of the trio were in high spirits and
+laughed and chatted, and bantered each other for the rest of the time
+they were out, Alma was silent and _distraite_.  And an hour or so later
+when they landed at the tow-path in the dusk and bade good-bye to their
+escort and chief oarsman it seemed to Alma that that day had somehow
+drawn down a curtain across her life.  For this brief glimpse of her
+former lover had stirred her heart with a dull and aching sense of void.
+She recognised now that she had been fonder of Philip Orlebar than she
+had chosen to admit, had, in fact, loved him.  Well, it was too late now
+for regrets.  She it was who in her scorn and bitter anger had sent him
+away from her, and now he had already begun to console himself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+"...FOR HIS HOUSE AN IRREDEEMABLE WOE."
+
+"Well, Francis, and what do you think of that idle, good-for-nothing boy
+of yours now?  He seems in no great hurry to come and see his father--in
+rather less of a hurry than his father was to go and see him."
+
+Thus Lady Orlebar one evening as she sat at dinner with her husband some
+few weeks after we last saw them together.  There was just sufficient
+point in the ill-conditioned and therefore characteristic sneer to give
+it effect.  Nearly a month had gone by since Philip's return from the
+Continent, but somehow he had not found time to pay his father a visit.
+He was still in Wales, still staying with Mrs Daventer, where he had
+been ever since his return aforesaid.
+
+"He seems tolerably happy where he is," went on Lady Orlebar,
+maliciously, having failed to provoke a reply.  "Of course there is a
+girl in the case, and that with one of Philip's temperament can lead to
+but one result.  So make up your mind to hear by any post that you are
+endowed with a daughter-in-law of the least desirable kind."
+
+Still Sir Francis made no reply.  He was, in fact, very sore, very hurt,
+by Philip's want of consideration, and his wife's gibing sneers were
+probing the wound.  This she failed not to see, and, seeing, enjoyed
+thoroughly, after the manner of her kind.
+
+"Failing the daughter-in-law I prophesy the outcome will be an action
+for breach of promise," she went on, characteristically eager to provoke
+a battle of words in order to enjoy the triumph of crushingly defeating
+the enemy.  "Philip is just the sort who is sent into the world to
+constitute an easy prey for rogues and adventuresses.  The boy is simply
+a born fool."
+
+Dinner was over, and the servants had withdrawn.  The dessert was on the
+table--had been for some time--and Sir Francis was wistfully wondering
+how long it would be before his wife thought fit to follow the example
+of the servants.  Just then a footman entered bearing some letters on a
+salver.  The evening post had arrived.
+
+Welcoming any diversion, Sir Francis proceeded to open his.  But at
+sight of the contents of one of them, his face changed, and an
+exclamation escaped him.  His wife looked quickly up, then without a
+moment's hesitation she stretched forth her hand and seized the letter,
+which in his first bewilderment he had let fall upon the table.  A
+harsh, sneering laugh escaped her as she ran her eye down the contents,
+and then proceeded to read them aloud:--
+
+  "Capias Chambers, Golden Fleece Lane, E.C.
+
+  "_September 2_ 3, 188-.
+
+  "Glover _versus_ Orlebar.
+
+  "Dear Sir,--Instructed by our client, Miss Edith Glover, we have
+  written to your son, Mr Philip Orlebar, claiming from him the sum of
+  10,000 (ten thousand) pounds damages by reason of non-fulfilment of
+  his promise to marry our aforesaid client.
+
+  "Up till now we have received no reply; but we think it may be in the
+  interest of the young gentleman himself that you should be made aware
+  of this claim against him.
+
+  "Trusting that by adopting this course further steps may be rendered
+  unnecessary--
+
+  "We are, dear Sir,
+
+  "Yours faithfully,
+
+  "Swindell and Shears.
+
+  "To Sir Francis Orlebar, Bart.,
+
+  "Claxby Court, Rushtonborough."
+
+"Ha-ha!  Didn't I say so?" she cried.  "And scarcely are the words out
+of my mouth than here it is--an action for breach of promise!  Well, and
+what are you going to do now, Francis?"
+
+"Nothing.  Take no notice of it whatever.  The thing is a mere attempt
+at a swindle--a clumsy, impudent swindle.  I sha'n't give it another
+moment's thought."
+
+Easily said--far less easily done, especially by a nervous highly strung
+temperament such as that of the speaker.
+
+"But who is this person?" went on Lady Orlebar, again scanning the
+letter.  "The people he is with now are named Daventer--not Glover.  Do
+you know who it can be?"
+
+"Honestly, I don't.  To the best of my belief I never heard the name
+before in my life.  All the more does it look like a try-on--an impudent
+and barefaced try-on.  On second thoughts, however, I'll send it up to
+Stretton in the morning, and tell him to see if he can make anything out
+of it, or to act as he thinks fit.  Yes, that's what I'll do."
+
+"Why don't you send for Philip himself and make him explain.  It appears
+to me that he would be the proper person to throw what light he could
+upon the matter."
+
+"Oh, it's of no use worrying the boy.  He may be here any day now.
+It'll be time enough then."
+
+Lady Orlebar gave a snort of defiance.  The above remark was as a direct
+challenge to her to renew the battle.  But her husband looked so
+anxious, so worried himself, that even she forebore, for once, to worry
+him further.
+
+There was silence in the room.  Sir Francis sat abstractedly gazing upon
+the table in front of him--in reality seeing nothing at all.  His whole
+mind was filled up with this scrape that his son had got into.  It was
+not the amount of the claim that affected him--on that point he felt
+fairly secure.  Philip was of age, but had not a shilling in the world
+of his own; out of him, therefore, nothing could be got.  But that his
+name should once more be dragged through the mud, and that at the
+instance of a harpy, an adventuress, this was where the sting of it all
+lay.  "Once more," we said.  For Sir Francis had very good reasons of
+his own for avoiding anything that should drag his name into notoriety.
+
+So unpleasantly absorbing were his reflections, so rapt was he in his
+reverie, that the entrance of the butler was wholly unnoticed.  Not
+until the man had twice drawn his attention to the card which lay upon a
+salver did he awake from his abstraction, and then it was with a start,
+for the card was inscribed--"Mr Richard Fordham."
+
+Fordham!--Phil's friend, whom he had more than once pressingly invited
+to make a stay at Claxby Court, which invitation had persistently been
+declined upon one ground or another.  Fordham--the man who had been
+Philip's travelling companion, guide, philosopher, and friend during the
+past year.  Surely if any one knew anything of this unfortunate affair,
+Fordham was the man.  True, it would have struck him at any other time
+that to arrive after dinner unannounced and unexpected was somewhat of
+an odd proceeding, but Phil had always described his friend as an
+out-and-out eccentricity.  Besides, his visit might relate to this very
+affair.  The baronet saw light.  "Where is this gentleman, Karslake?" he
+said eagerly.  "I showed him into the library, Sir Francis.  He said he
+would not detain you long, and his fly is waiting for him at the door."
+
+The library was lighted only by one shaded lamp in the centre of the
+table; consequently it was in semi-gloom.  The visitor was seated in a
+low chair with his back to the door, and Sir Francis on entering hardly
+perceived him.  Then, closing the door behind him and giving a slight
+cough, the baronet began--
+
+"Mr Fordham, I believe--Garcia!  Oh, good God!"
+
+And then, with a low cry of amazement and horror, he stopped short,
+staggered back a pace or two, and stood gazing helplessly at his
+visitor.
+
+For the latter, as soon as he heard the door close, had risen and
+wheeled round rapidly to face the other.  Now, as he stood there, the
+light full upon him, the saturnine features wreathed into a smile that
+was more than half a sneer; the look of triumphant malice upon that dark
+countenance was positively satanic.
+
+"The name on the card was Fordham," said Sir Francis, vacantly.  "I
+recognised it as that of my son's friend.  What does it all mean?"
+
+"It means this, Francis Orlebar.  Your son's friend of to-day, hight
+Fordham, is the same individual as your friend of years ago, hight
+Garcia.  Are you beginning to see?"
+
+The question was scarcely needed.  As the whole truth burst in upon him
+that this man, whose ruthless hate he had incurred--not wrongfully
+either--long years ago, had been his son's confidant and constant
+travelling companion now, the look of horror and repulsion upon the
+baronet's countenance was in itself sufficient answer.
+
+"You do!" went on the other.  "Quite so--I knew you would.  And now you
+are wondering what on earth was my object in constituting myself guide,
+philosopher, and friend to your son, for no man can be more certain than
+yourself that that object was not likely to be to Philip's advantage.
+Do you follow me?"
+
+"I do.  But Garcia, though I wronged you--wronged you unpardonably, I
+admit--years ago, you would surely not extend your rancour, just as that
+may be as regards myself--your revengeful bitterness--to an innocent
+boy--one who is incapable of harming anybody.  Surely even you would
+stop short at this.  We are both comparatively near the end of our
+lives--his is all before him.  Surely even you would shrink from doing
+anything to poison that life."
+
+"Did you shrink from poisoning mine, Francis Orlebar?  Still, upon my
+soul, I believe you were more sinned against than sinning.  I almost
+think, if it concerned you alone, I would have let it pass.  But in
+striking you I shall equally well strike her--that she-devil.  I had
+almost decided to bury the whole affair, but I could not let her escape.
+She should supply the weapon--the weapon I wanted.  I forced her to be
+the instrument of revenge upon herself equally as upon you.  That sort
+of revenge was too appetising, too wholly unique, to be thrown away."
+
+Never a strong man at any time, when he was unnerved Sir Francis was as
+weak as water.  He was now thoroughly unnerved.  His face was as white
+as death and his voice shook.
+
+"Man--man!" he gasped, "what are you driving at?  What have you done?
+Speak out--or are you too great a coward?"
+
+But Fordham only smiled--the same cruel, satanic smile, which consisted
+of little else than the droop of the corners of his mouth.  He was
+enjoying the other's anguished suspense--gloating over these mental
+writhings--as he had come there intending to do.  But before he could
+frame an answer, an interruption occurred.  The door opened suddenly,
+and there entered no less a personage than Lady Orlebar.
+
+The fact was, she reckoned the time had come for her to bear her share
+in the interview.  There should be no mysteries apart from her
+cognisance in that house, while she was in it.  So allowing sufficient
+time to float them into the swing of the discussion, she had swooped
+down upon them, suddenly, decisively, as was her wont.  But
+disappointment awaited.  Beyond a stiff bow, Fordham's attitude
+underwent no change--nor did he utter a single word.  He stood,
+unmistakably, ostentatiously, waiting for her to go out again.
+
+But this she had no intention of doing.  One glance at her husband
+satisfied her that a stronger spirit was needed to cope with the man
+before her.
+
+"Sir Francis has not been very well lately," she began, looking at
+Fordham.  "He is anything but strong, and this news about his son has
+sadly upset him."
+
+It was Fordham's turn to look astonished.  To what news did she allude?
+He himself had certainly not imparted any--not yet.
+
+"Of course it is a very tiresome and disconcerting thing," she went on,
+"although likely to prove all sheet-and-turnip--for one can hardly
+believe it genuine or likely to stand the test of a court of law."
+
+"I hope you may not be mistaken in that last surmise," remarked Fordham
+grimly, and in a tone which implied that he very much hoped she might.
+They were at cross purposes.
+
+"Well, it's an annoying thing, anyway.  Who are these Glovers, Mr
+Fordham, and how did Philip manage to get into their clutches?  Of
+course you know they have brought an action for breach of promise
+against him?"
+
+"I didn't.  I know, however, that they threatened to.  In fact, I was
+instrumental in rescuing him from their clutches.  They are an underbred
+lot, anyway."
+
+"I thought so?" cried Lady Orlebar eagerly, while Sir Francis started,
+and stared bewildered at his visitor.  If the latter had stood Philip's
+friend in this affair surely he had no intention of injuring him.  But
+this world is one of cruel contrasts.
+
+"I am surprised you have heard nothing of this, Mr Fordham," she went
+on.  "We thought it was upon this subject that you had done us the
+favour to call.  May I ask, then--what is the nature of your business
+with Sir Francis?"
+
+If Fordham was inwardly bursting with sardonic mirth, he was not going
+to show it.  The unbounded impudence of the woman, practically asking
+him what the devil he wanted there at all--and expecting he was going to
+tell her--struck him as the richest thing he had heard for a very long
+time.
+
+"Pardon me, Lady Orlebar, if I seem rude," he answered, shortly; "but
+the nature of my business happens to concern Sir Francis alone.  We had
+only just begun to enter upon it when you came in; but if Sir Francis is
+not equal to hearing my communication to-night I shall be happy to call
+again in the morning, or in a day or two."
+
+But Sir Francis was equal--very much so.  The suspense he was undergoing
+was far too real--sickening in fact.  So he turned upon his spouse with
+an energy that astonished that now irate personage.
+
+"I think, my dear, you had perhaps better leave us.  Our business is
+private and important--in fact, very important."  And going over to the
+door he held it open for her in such wise as to leave her no
+alternative.
+
+"Very well, Sir Francis," she spluttered, fairly beside herself with
+rage.  "I am turned out of the room, mind, and by you!  Very well.  But
+I have no wish to hear your secrets.  They are sure to be of a
+discreditable nature, anyhow."
+
+With this parting shot she disappeared.  Fordham, looking after her,
+slightly shook his head, and reflected that if he had thought to
+chastise his old enemy with whips, assuredly Fate had elected to do so
+with scorpions.  Anybody under the heel of such a woman as this, had
+about come to the bottom of the cup of misfortune.  Surely he had
+nothing worse left to fear.
+
+"And now that we are alone," said Sir Francis, coming back from the door
+which he had closed after his wife, "perhaps you will er--enlighten me
+as to the nature of this communication."
+
+He looked so unstrung, so worn, so piteous in his agony of suspense,
+that even a ray of ruth may have entered the heart of his implacable
+enemy.  But if so, it was quickly quenched.
+
+"Did it never strike you as odd?" said the latter, "that Philip should
+have been back all these weeks, and yet not have thought it worth his
+while running over to see you?"
+
+Just what his wife had said.  Sir Francis felt his apprehensions
+deepening; but he made no reply.  Perhaps he could not.
+
+"Well, he is more attractively employed, at any rate--for the time
+being," emphasised Fordham.  "In proof whereof--look at this."
+
+He produced a telegram from his pocket; deliberately unfolded it, then
+handed it to the other.  Sir Francis' face grew deathly white as he read
+it, and he gave a sort of gasp.  He could only stare at the paper, then
+at Fordham, then at the paper again.
+
+Thus ran the latter:--
+
+  "_Married this morning to Laura Daventer.  Congratulate me, old chap.
+  Phil_."
+
+"Is this a practical joke of yours?" gasped the baronet at length, as
+soon as he could find words.
+
+"By no means.  It is just as I received it.  Look at the date of the
+office stamp--the 22nd.  It was yesterday the affair came off.  I only
+returned this morning from a few days' absence, and found the wire
+awaiting me in my quarters.  Yet it is news to you.  Very inconsiderate
+on Phil's part, I must say.  He might have let you know."
+
+"Who--what--are these people--these Daventers?"
+
+"Well, the young lady is his social equal, at all events, as you will
+probably be the first to admit," answered Fordham, the cruel sneer
+deepening on his countenance.  All the satanic ruthlessness of his
+implacable rancour had returned.  He was pouring out the very life blood
+of his enemy now.  All thoughts of pity, of compunction, had passed
+away.
+
+"On her mother's side the girl is undoubtedly his social equal," he
+continued.  "On that of her father--well, you must be the best judge."
+
+"I!" echoed Sir Francis, wonderingly.  "Who, then, is her father?"
+
+Fordham gazed full at him for a moment.  Then his lips framed in a
+whisper one single word.  And, hearing it, Sir Francis dropped back into
+his chair, his eyes staring, his face white as with the dews of death,
+shaking in every limb.
+
+"Look well at the date of this," pursued his relentless tormentor,
+holding out the telegram.  "September 22nd.  And this is the
+twenty-third.  They have been married more than twenty-four hours.  By
+the time you can communicate with them it will be forty-eight."
+
+But the unhappy man could articulate no word.  The faculty of speech
+seemed to have left him.  He saw it all now--saw the whole plot in all
+its diabolical horror.
+
+"I told you once that my vengeance would follow you to the very grave,"
+went on Fordham.  "Did you think because it had slept for years that
+therefore it was dead?  Now you had better wire for Philip the first
+thing in the morning, for it will be too late to-night.  And when he
+comes give him this.  It will save you the trouble of explaining."
+
+He threw down what looked like a bulky letter carefully sealed and
+directed.  Mechanically Sir Francis clutched it, but of any further
+reply he seemed incapable.  Had his reason given way beneath the shock?
+It almost looked like it.  Then with one more glance at his stricken
+enemy--a glance burning with hate, and long cherished rancour, and sated
+vengeance--Fordham left the room--and the house.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+"THE SINS OF THE FATHERS."
+
+The telegram which Fordham had shown Sir Francis told no more than the
+truth.  Philip had riveted about himself that chain which only death can
+break.  He and Laura Daventer were married.
+
+How had it come about--the haste, the secrecy, too?  Well, it was all
+very simple.  Given one of Philip Orlebar's temperament--given three or
+four weeks of close and daily companionship with a very attractive girl
+deadly in earnest in her designs upon him; given the accessories of a
+highly amiable and accommodating mother; of glorious summer weather; of
+cool rambles beneath shaded rocks, and strolls _a deux_ on the moonlit
+beach--given all these things, we say, and small wonder is it that
+Philip's susceptible heart--then very much at the rebound--should be
+triumphantly captured, and with it his hand.
+
+Laura had played her cards well--had played them with a consummate
+coolness beyond her years.  She had determined to win him, almost from
+the very first, yet she would rather risk failure than show herself
+over-eager to grasp success.  Hence she had nipped his too premature
+declaration in the bud on that last occasion when we saw them together
+at Zermatt.  She had even done this again with equal judiciousness--her
+point being that he should never think he was going to have an easy walk
+over--then had as suddenly capitulated, so sweetly, so entrancingly, as
+to bind him to her there and then with tenfold ardour.
+
+In all of this she had been most skilfully and efficiently abetted by
+her mother.  However reluctant the latter had been when the scheme was
+first propounded to her, the pendulum had now swung round the other way.
+It would be altogether to Laura's advantage, and nothing need ever be
+known.  The girl herself was in complete ignorance, and as for the
+Mephistophelian originator of the idea, it was not likely that he would
+disclose the secret.  Perhaps, after all, she had judged him too
+harshly.  Perhaps he had really been moved to plan out this in Laura's
+interest and, at the same time, to enjoy the sport of, in a measure,
+turning the tables on his old enemy.  And then, again, her mind would be
+shaken by a great disquietude, or more than misgiving.  For if ever she
+could commit herself to a grave mistake, it would be when she should
+credit Fordham with motives and intentions otherwise than entirely
+evil--in his dealings with her and hers that is.  Still she would not
+abandon her share in the plot--in the first place she dared not--in the
+next she lacked inclination.  And meanwhile matters had gone too far.
+
+Clever, scheming, as she was, to do her justice, Laura's whole heart was
+in the plan.  In progress of her manoeuvring she had conceived a great
+affection for this bright, open-hearted admirer of hers; an affection
+which was destined to blaze forth into a burning, deep-rooted, lifelong
+passion.  And the motor which should work this transformation was very
+near at hand.  Even then she stood on the verge of its shadow.  But--
+Heaven help her when it should enshroud her entirely--for then might she
+sit down and cast ashes upon her head, and think no more of life.
+
+Even in that brief, fleeting hour of her triumph--of her happiness--
+there was always one misgiving which, like the skeleton at the feast,
+would never be entirely banished.  A heart caught at the rebound may
+constitute an easy capture, but it is doubtful whether it constitutes a
+safe one.  And that her capture was of this nature Laura was fully
+aware.  Given one of Philip's expansive, sympathy-craving temperament,
+it was impossible she could have been otherwise.  Indeed, it was very
+much the knowledge of this that constituted the trump card in her far
+from unfavourable hand; and it was a far from unfavourable one, for
+Laura Daventer could be very winning, very sympathetic, in short, very
+dangerously attractive when she chose.
+
+They had travelled home to England together, and during the tediousness
+and worry of a long journey--no small test of patience and temper--Laura
+had shown at her best; helpful, ready, unselfish.  They had spent three
+or four days in London together, and Philip had found her a delightful
+companion; and while Mrs Daventer rested or shopped, they two would go
+off upon a long day's expedition--mostly up the river--returning in the
+best of spirits, and more wrapped up in each other than ever.  It was a
+bright and happy time--an idyllic time--and there seemed no reason why
+it should not last.  Yet, deep down in her heart, Laura was conscious of
+that gnawing, cankering misgiving.  Without underrating her own charms--
+her own powers of attractiveness--she instinctively felt that one glance
+from Alma Wyatt's great grey eyes would suffice to scatter her own fair
+house of cards to the four winds of heaven.  "_On revient toujours_,"
+etc, may be, and in fact is, a saw of doubtful, not to say baseless,
+foundation, but this last experience of the volatile Phil's was of far
+too recent occurrence, she decided.  The wound could not actually be
+healed in so short a time; but, given a fair field, under her own soft
+and sympathetic hand, it eventually should be.
+
+Once they had got him safe home, Laura breathed more freely.  In or
+around the quiet and somewhat remote little Welsh seaport the prospects
+of any chance meeting with Alma Wyatt seemed so minute as to be
+practically non-existent.  Ynys-cwm-barweg was not much of a place in
+the matter of attractions; but given cloudless summer weather, bracing
+sea air, and unbounded freedom, to two young people in love with each
+other such a place is apt to become a very Eden.
+
+The rest was easy.  To a clever woman like Mrs Daventer, the process of
+"drawing" the ingenuous Philip was the merest child's play.  Before he
+had been a week her guest, she knew all about him and his family--its
+circumstances, idiosyncrasies, and surroundings--as well as he did
+himself.  The chances seemed good enough.  Laura should marry him, and
+eventually become Lady Orlebar.  Then the irony of the situation would
+be complete, but they two would never know.
+
+That a chain is no stronger than its weakest link is proverbial.  Clever
+as she was, as success attended her shrewdness and manoeuvring, Mrs
+Daventer closed her eyes more and more to one point.  The scheme had
+been one of Fordham's originating--could it therefore have for its
+object anybody's good?  Yet so promising did everything look that,
+woman-like, she almost began to believe she had originated it herself,
+and so thoroughly was she acting upon this idea that it became
+unnecessary for the real author to apply from time to time a refreshing
+spur, which, being the skilful tactician that he was, he forebore to do.
+
+But if her astuteness failed her as to the _bona fides_ of the plan, in
+the execution of the same she showed skill and generalship.  She read
+Philip's character like a book.  If Laura was to marry him, it must be
+now.  Once away, once at home again, absence, family influences,
+possibly unforeseen circumstances, such as counter-attractions, would do
+their work.  Once away, it would be--never.  Wherein she was most
+probably right.
+
+Never did sheep walk so confidingly to the slaughter, never did
+condemned so readily place the noose around his own neck.  What Mrs
+Daventer was cudgelling her wits to bring about Philip himself shortly
+suggested.  Then came some exquisite card-playing.  She was horrified.
+He must never suggest such a thing again.  Great Heavens, the boy must
+be mad!  Of course he must do everything _en regle_ and in a proper way,
+and the first step in that direction was of course to consult his
+family.  Why, what would be said?  Of course that they had led him into
+it--entrapped him.  No, she would not hear of anything of the kind.
+
+Whereat the guileless Phil had laughed inordinately.  Led him into it!
+That was a good joke, and he even thought of retailing for Mrs
+Daventer's amusement Fordham's characteristic parting words--
+
+"You're walking into the trap with your eyes open, Phil, my boy.  Don't
+come to me to get you out of it, that's all, for I won't.  I wash my
+hands of you.  You're hopeless."
+
+Now Fordham, we need hardly say, was perfectly aware that this warning
+would have precisely the same effect upon Philip as endeavouring to pull
+back a pig by the tail has upon that homely and generally useful
+quadruped--that of strengthening the spirit of opposition, to wit.
+
+_Quem Deus vult perdere_.  It is just possible that some similar idea as
+that which had carried conviction to Mrs Daventer ran through Philip's
+mind.  He feared opposition in delay--knowing his own weakness, he may
+have feared for the result.  And the present was so insidiously sweet,
+so seductively entrancing, why think of the future?  Others would put
+before him all sorts of hard, repellant contingencies--would unsettle
+him--would, in fact, drag him, and that rudely, from his fool's
+paradise?  And why should they?  It did not follow that everybody else
+knew everything, while he, Philip Orlebar, was bound to remain a
+consummate ass.  It did not follow either that his paradise was a fool's
+paradise.  He was surely old enough to know his own business best; other
+people's interference could do no good, but very likely plenty of
+mischief.  No, this was entirely his own affair, and as such he intended
+it should remain.  Thus the sheep went quite blithely to the slaughter.
+
+It was done--was done at last.  The mother's horrified opposition went
+down at the last moment before the daughter's quiet, determined
+persistency and a special licence--went down with a completeness that to
+an unprejudiced and strictly impartial observer might have looked ever
+so slightly suspicious.  It was arranged that Philip should break the
+news to his father immediately afterwards, and on that condition only
+would Mrs Daventer be brought to yield a most reluctant consent; and,
+in accordance with this, Philip, leaving his bride in the care of her
+mother, was to travel down to Claxby alone.
+
+Yet very happy were these two--very happy in their fool's paradise.  To
+Laura especially it seemed too good to be true--too good to last.  She
+seemed to move as in a waking dream.  And now they must part, though
+only for forty-eight hours, perhaps less--must part immediately upon
+their union.  It did not seem right.  It seemed ominous.
+
+"Come back to me the moment you can break away, Phil, my darling," she
+said, as she bade him a final good-bye in the early morning on the
+platform of the seldom-used little station.  "I have no fear but that
+you will be able to talk over Sir Francis.  Who could resist you?" she
+parenthesised with an inflexion of tender pride.  "But do not remain
+away from me a moment longer than you are obliged.  We have only just
+begun to belong to each other remember, and I have only just begun to
+live.  Good-bye, my own."
+
+Then the train moved off from the platform, and soft-hearted Phil felt a
+corresponding lump rise in his throat as he watched those beautiful
+eyes, brimming over with love for him, fade into the dimness of
+distance, till even the white waving handkerchief became as a mere
+speck.  Then a turn in the embankment hid the whole from view.
+
+Thus they parted, there on the wooden platform of the deserted little
+country station.  And those last words were as the knell of a life--of
+two lives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+AFTER FORDHAM'S VISIT.
+
+After Fordham had left the room Sir Francis hardly seemed aware of his
+visitor's departure.  He sat there like one turned to stone, the full
+horror of the recent disclosure weighing him down.  First had come the
+lawyer's letter threatening an action against his son.  That seemed very
+trivial now--very far-away.  Then the shock of confronting so
+unexpectedly his old enemy, and following that the pain and resentment
+of learning that Philip had taken the most important step in life
+without a word to him.  But all this was nothing--less than nothing--
+when compared with the nature of that fearful disclosure.
+
+Why had the long-turned-down pages of that dark chapter in his past so
+suddenly been flung open before him now?  Why should this man pursue him
+with such vengeful hate?  He had wronged him, it was true, but equally
+true was it that he had never shrunk from the consequences.  He had
+given him satisfaction, and bore the mark of that meeting even yet,
+would carry it to his grave.  Why, then, should he be thus relentlessly
+pursued--why should his transgression be visited upon the head of his
+innocent son?  Surely the retribution was out of all proportion to the
+offence.  But reason as he would, rebel as he would, the horrible fact
+remained.  For years he and his had unconsciously been the objects of a
+devilish, vindictive plot.  And at the thought of the craft and
+cleverness of the plan a ray of hope shone in upon his mind.  The whole
+thing might be annulled.  It should be.  But could it?  He could no more
+prove the relationship now than Fordham could have done at the time.
+Besides, the publicity of such an attempt, and they had already been
+married more than twenty-four hours--horrible--horrible!  Whichever way
+he looked at it there was a dead blank wall confronting him.
+
+"So make up your mind to hear by any post that you are endowed with a
+daughter-in-law of the least desirable kind," had been his wife's
+sneering words but a short half-hour ago.  Prophetic indeed, so much so
+that a brief suspicion crossed his mind lest she might be already in the
+secret--very brief though, only to be succeeded by a fixed determination
+that she must at all costs be kept out of it--out of that part of it
+which contained the whole sting of the grisly reality at any rate; for
+the bare fact of the marriage was of course public property.  No; it
+must remain a secret between himself and Philip, while they should
+arrive at some decision as to what ought to be done.
+
+It may readily be surmised that Lady Orlebar did not leave her husband
+alone for long, once Fordham had departed.  Even her damaged dignity had
+to give way before the intense curiosity which was consuming her, and
+accordingly she swooped down upon him determined to arrive at the
+torturing secret.  But, for once, she failed--only for the present
+though, she told herself--for so ill, so prostrated did he look that
+expediency supplying the place of feeling, moved her to refrain from
+worrying him further--moved her even to show some solicitude on his
+behalf.  If ever there was a valuable life, from her way of looking at
+it, in this world, it was that of Sir Francis, for should it cease she
+would be left well-nigh penniless.  He could not put by any thing now
+because she persisted in living up to the income, and at his death
+everything would go to the obnoxious Philip, against whom her ire raged
+secretly but hot.
+
+Wherefore, we say, expediency moved her to show some consideration for
+her husband, and of a truth he needed it.  Piteous indeed he looked,
+white and ill as a man who has received a knock-down blow.  At first a
+horrible fear crossed her mind, that he had been speculating, but a
+hurried assertion that money had nothing to do with the affair had
+infinitely relieved it.  If it was not that it didn't matter, she
+reasoned.  Of course it had to do with his scamp of a son, but that need
+not affect her.
+
+"You had better go to bed, Francis, and take a sleeping draught," she
+said, after several ineffectual attempts at eliciting the burden of the
+recent interview.  "We can talk things over to-morrow.  But, goodness
+gracious, what is the use of worrying?  As if anything mattered at this
+time of life--anything short of the smash up of a bank--and you say it
+is no question of money.  Come, now.  The best thing you can do is to go
+to bed."
+
+But on this point Sir Francis was not compliant.  By a curious
+coincidence a new idea struck him, viz, that Philip not having
+communicated with him, was coming in person to break the news of his
+marriage.  And he might arrive at any moment.  No, he would not go to
+bed, late as it was.  And then, as if to add point to his resolve, there
+came a grinding of wheels on the drive, followed by a loud ring at the
+front door.  The baronet started up in his chair, and his face became
+more ashy white than before.
+
+"Goodness gracious!  Whatever is it all about?" cried Lady Orlebar, as,
+following on a sound of voices outside, the door was thrown open, and
+Philip entered without waiting to be announced.  "Shall we ever get to
+the bottom of all this mystery?"  And then she stopped.  For, at sight
+of her, the joyous, radiant look on Philip's face had changed to one of
+cold sternness as he discounted her furious opposition in advance.  Even
+she was overawed.  She felt almost afraid of him.
+
+"Pardon me," he said to her, after the cold handshake of greeting.  "I
+must see my father--alone.  Would you mind?"
+
+There was no mistaking the gesture as he moved towards the door.  The
+bluntness of the request--the insult of it--thought Lady Orlebar as she
+swept majestically out.  For the second time that evening she was turned
+out of the room.  Well, let them talk over their infamous secrets.  They
+need look for no help from her, she determined, fairly shaking with
+rage.
+
+Sir Francis did not meet his son's gaze as he extended one trembling
+hand.  The other still clutched mechanically the packet which Fordham
+had thrust into it.  Philip's heart smote him, and all the brightness
+went out of his face.  Had his father already heard the news which he
+had come to break?
+
+"I say, dad, what's the row?  Dear old dad," he went on, obtaining no
+answer but a sigh--bending down and placing his arm round his father's
+shoulders--"you're looking deucedly cut up.  Have you been--er--hearing
+anything?"
+
+"Hearing anything?" echoed Sir Francis, in a hollow, far-away tone, and
+turning to his son with a wild stare.  "Hearing anything?  Philip, I
+have heard that which I--which we had both better have died than have
+lived to see happen."
+
+"Come, come dad, don't take on about it like that!  It was playing
+rather low down, I know, doing things all on the quiet.  Still--I
+couldn't help it.  Wait until you see my Laura--that's all!  Why you'll
+fall in love with her yourself, and we'll all be as jolly as sandboys
+together.  But, how did you hear about it?  Who told you?"
+
+For answer Sir Francis pointed to the telegram which Fordham had left on
+the table either by inadvertence or as not worth taking away.
+
+"Hallo!  So Fordham has been here?" cried Phil.  "Hang it, I never
+authorised the old chap to break the news.  I suppose, though, he
+thought you knew it already, and came to congratulate you.  Still--it's
+odd--deuced odd.  It isn't like him, anyhow."
+
+"He left this for you," holding forth the bulky missive.  "Philip, take
+it to your own room, where you will be quite alone, lock the door, and
+read it through from beginning to end.  Oh, God!  It is horrible--
+horrible?"
+
+"Horrible!  Fordham!" echoed Philip, in blank amazement.  "Father, I
+don't understand.  Tell me in a word--what's it all about?  Why make me
+wade through twenty pages of Fordham's rigmarole when half-a-dozen words
+will do it?"
+
+"Oh, I can't--I can't!" moaned poor Sir Francis.  "Read it, Phil--read
+it!  That will tell you."  And with almost frantic gesture he waved his
+son from the room.
+
+Philip's heart beat strangely as he went to seek the privacy enjoined.
+What on earth had Fordham to communicate that concerned himself--that
+availed to throw his father into so pitiable a state of agitation?
+Under ordinary circumstances he would have suspected the package, so
+elaborately sealed and directed to himself, to contain a string of stale
+and would-be cynical platitudes on the situation, for which he felt in
+no sort of mood just then.  Now a strange eerie foreboding of evil was
+upon him.
+
+He gained his room, which was fireless, and cold and uncheery of aspect.
+Then, by the light of the solitary candle, he broke the seals and drew
+forth the contents of the envelope.  These would keep him busy for some
+time in all conscience, he decided, noticing how closely written were
+the numerous sheets.  But almost with the first glance, as he began to
+read, a start and a wild ejaculation escaped him.  Then, as he read on,
+a deathly paleness spread over his countenance, and his hand clenched
+convulsively upon the rail of his chair.  His attitude became rigid and
+his features hardened.  His eyes dilated with a stare of intense horror
+and surprise as they travelled down each successive sheet of the fateful
+paper.
+
+Where is the sunny, light-hearted youth, rejoicing in the strength of
+health and happiness and love, who entered this house such a short while
+ago?  Not surely to be found in this being, whose ashy features are
+stamped with the set, grey look of a stricken despair; the frozen horror
+in whose eyes, as they seek alternately the shadowed objects around the
+half-darkened room and the rigidly grasped paper, is that of a man who
+suddenly realises that he has all involuntarily committed some appalling
+crime.
+
+His dry lips move half unconsciously, and in husky, laboured gasps,
+frame the well-nigh inarticulate words--
+
+"O God! such a hideous thing could never be!  God in Heaven, it can't be
+true!  It can't be true!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+WHAT WAS REVEALED.
+
+  "There is a good deal of a surprise before you, Philip," began the
+  paper, "but nevertheless, go patiently through this, from start to
+  finish, and don't look at the end first, after the manner of the
+  average woman reading a novel, for it would only detract from the full
+  bearing of the narrative, and probably cloud and obfuscate the same at
+  every issue.
+
+  "My real name is not Richard Fordham, but Richard Cecil Garcia.  It
+  suited me--no matter how--to take the other, to drop my real name,
+  with which I was thoroughly sickened and disgusted.  With what show of
+  reason you will learn as you read on.  But it is a strange,
+  foreign-sounding name, is it not?  Well, it is a foreign name, for I
+  am of Corsican origin.  That being so, it follows I have the hot,
+  vindictive temperament of a Southern race in addition to a fair share
+  of British tenacity of purpose.  No man ever injured me but was
+  requited sooner or later--requited to the full--requited, in fact,
+  tenfold.  The bearing of this upon what follows you will all too soon
+  grasp.
+
+  "You and I have known each other now for something less than two
+  years; but have known each other better, more intimately, than we
+  should have done under ordinary circumstances in about half a
+  lifetime.  You thought our first meeting entirely a fortuitous one.
+  It was not.  It was deliberately brought about by me in pursuance of a
+  matured and long-set plan.
+
+  "You have often wondered at my unutterable detestation of, contempt
+  for, the other sex.  It has amused you, and you have laughed at it as
+  a `crank.'  You are young, and think that a very large percentage of
+  angel abides within the average petticoat.  Very good.  I can't say I
+  ever held that belief, for I always despised and distrusted the dear
+  creatures from the very earliest time I can remember.
+
+  "`Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,' may be
+  only Scripture, but it is remarkably sound human nature.  My `fall'
+  came--and an uncommonly far and hard one it was destined to prove.
+  There is no need to go into all the sickening details--the how, or the
+  when, or the where.  Suffice it to say that the creature was well
+  endowed with all the attractiveness (so-called) and the devilish arts
+  and wizardry of her species.  For a few months I thought myself in
+  Paradise--had found the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life.
+
+  "In this disastrous mania, mind you, it was not I who took the
+  initiative.  For every reason on the face of the earth it was to this
+  woman's advantage that my name and what modest competence I possessed
+  should become hers.  It suited her vanity, too, that she alone should
+  be the one to penetrate my armour-coat of invulnerable mail.  And in
+  those days when the blood ran hot such beauty as hers was calculated
+  to bring down even my defences--though now I can look back to that
+  hideous mockery of a time with nothing but horror and unmitigated
+  disgust--can look upon the actress in that shameful travesty with
+  loathing and unquenchable hate.  And now at this day I hold her very
+  life in the hollow of my hand.  Some day I will close my fingers and
+  crush it--but not yet--not yet.
+
+  "For some months, as I have said, I thought myself in Paradise.  Then
+  came disillusion--speedy when it did come.  I knew myself then to be
+  in _inferno_.  Heavens! the life that she-devil led me--she of whom I
+  had practically been the salvation!  She slandered my character, and
+  dragged my name in the mud.  She ruined my chances in life and caused
+  every friend I owned in the world to flee as from the plague.  She did
+  worse than that, for she sapped and well-nigh destroyed even my sense
+  of self-respect.  I often wondered, at the time, I did not kill her;
+  looking back now I wonder still more.
+
+  "Mind you, it was not on account of this one creature alone that I
+  have always held the whole of its sex in such intense abhorrence.  But
+  I have studied it--studied it carefully.  I have thought, `No one
+  shall say that I, the thinker, the character-reader, the student of
+  human nature all the world over, has judged a whole from a unit.'  But
+  the result of my observation is that in a greater or less degree it is
+  wonderfully alike.  You get the same littleness--the same gratuitous
+  malice--the same eager, scheming, unscrupulous grasping after
+  individual advantage--above all the same domineering spirit, the same
+  utter disregard of truth, the entire absence of any sense of moral
+  rectitude.  If it were possible to roll the tiger, the ape, and the
+  snake into one animal, you would get a perfect embodiment of the
+  average civilised and Christian woman of the nineteenth century.  The
+  _gentle_ sex!  Pah! it sickens one!
+
+  "Now and again, but rarely, I think I find an exceptional unit.  But
+  then I thought so once before, to my ultimate disaster.  And, Philip,
+  the last instance in which I thought to discover such an exception was
+  that of the girl named Alma Wyatt.  Well, it is too late to think of
+  that now--for you at any rate.  You have gone further and fared
+  infinitely worse.  Yet I warned you--warned you plainly and
+  unmistakably.  My very last words to you were those of warning.  And
+  now let us return to my own record.
+
+  "`When things are at their worst, they mend,' says the proverb.
+  Things were certainly at their worst with me.  I had committed social
+  and financial suicide, all but mental--and even seriously contemplated
+  actual and physical.  When I had reached that point; when every
+  conscious moment of the twenty-four hours was absorbed in marvelling
+  what besotted affliction of mania could have induced me to wreck my
+  life by legally chaining it to this demon, then, I say, came the
+  proverbial `mend.'  It came in the shape of a third party.
+
+  "Why dwell upon circumstances and detail?  The story was an utterly
+  commonplace and ordinary one.  She played off the whole stale bag of
+  tricks upon the new man, who must have been nearly as great a fool as
+  myself--in fact was.  To cut the matter short, one fine day they went
+  off together, levanted--also in the most commonplace and ordinary
+  style.  Then I sat down and chuckled--laughed as I had never laughed
+  since I was idiot enough to forge my chain.
+
+  "But I was a curious tempered devil in those days--am so still you
+  will no doubt say--and although I could not feel any serious
+  resentment against one who had relieved me of an intolerable burden,
+  by reason of that relief, still the act in itself was a deadly insult
+  to me.  I left the man alone for a few days, then I dropped down upon
+  him when he least expected it.  I raised no scene--not I.  There was a
+  better way of settling matters than that.  It was easy enough if
+  judiciously worked--is still at this very day.  A meeting was
+  arranged.
+
+  "It came off--in a wild out-of-the-way spot just across the Spanish
+  border.  We stood up, one lowering drizzling morning, when the clouds
+  were sweeping the tree-tops of the beech-forests covering the
+  Roncevalles plateau.  We exchanged shots.  I could have killed my man
+  easily, but didn't.  I was only playing with him.  He wasn't a bad
+  shot either, but I knew the game was entirely in my hands.  I could
+  have killed him, I say, but I never intended to do that.  It occurred
+  to me--knowing the man and having read off his character and
+  temperament fairly accurately--that life itself would avenge me upon
+  him far more than would his death.  I would put my mark upon him,
+  however.  So when we stood up again to each other's fire I planted my
+  ball in the tendons of his left leg, just above the knee.  My
+  adversary dropped, and the seconds pronounced the affair at an end.
+  But he was not dead; not even, with ordinary care, dangerously
+  wounded.  He would recover, but he would carry my mark--a mark
+  apparent to all--with him to his grave.  He would walk with a limp
+  during the remainder of his life.
+
+  "No doubt, Philip, you will now have guessed this man's identity.  To
+  avoid all chance of mistake, however, I will say that it was your own
+  father.
+
+  "Now we will come to Act 2 in the drama.
+
+  "He soon had enough of the woman; very much more than enough, as, of
+  course, was sure to be the case.  But he found he had strapped a
+  burden upon his back which it was in the last degree difficult to
+  shake off.  She, of course, fully expected I was going to free her, in
+  which case she would undoubtedly have succeeded in marrying your
+  father; for he never was a strong man, Philip, and I believe he would
+  have been weak enough even for that.  But I merely sat still and
+  laughed.  Heavens! how I did laugh!  For the joke was all on my side.
+  To be sure, if I had taken action which should have enabled Francis
+  Orlebar to marry her, I should have wreaked a far direr retribution
+  upon him than ever I could have done at the pistol's mouth.  But then
+  I hated her far more than I did him, and I was not going to play into
+  her hands.  Not, however, that I had done with him, as you will, to
+  your sorrow, learn.  So no fees out of my pocket went to fatten the
+  Divorce Court lawyers, and I sat still and laughed--laughed harder
+  than ever.  There was another consideration which militated against my
+  taking any steps to free myself.  Once legally free, I reasoned, so
+  great a fool is man, who knows but that I might be tempted again to
+  rivet that loathsome and degraded chain upon my emancipated limbs!  So
+  I resolved deliberately to leave it beyond my power again to
+  perpetrate such an act of suicidal folly, and accordingly I have done
+  so.
+
+  "Although, if empowered to do so, your father would, as I say, have
+  been weak enough to give this woman the legal right to his name, when
+  he--when they both--saw that such could never be the case while I
+  lived, he mustered up sufficient resolution to break with her.  Then
+  she tried it on with me; took up a high-handed line, declaring that
+  her legal right was to live with me; and that whereas nothing short of
+  legal process could quash that right, and whereas I had taken no such
+  process, she should assert her rights to the very uttermost.  Again I
+  only laughed, and--started off upon my travels.
+
+  "Then she tried another tack.  A child was born to her--a daughter--
+  whose paternity I, of course, denied.  She initiated proceedings
+  against me for maintenance, but these I stopped by pretending to fall
+  in with her claim.  It stipulated, however, that she should cease to
+  use my name.  This she promised; but of course the promise was not
+  kept.  So I cut off every shilling I allowed her, having previously
+  placed my means beyond the jurisdiction of the British courts--a
+  matter easily effected by secret and scattered investments in all
+  parts of the world; and she and her child were reduced to absolute
+  want.  That brought her to her knees; that tamed the she-devil.  I had
+  things all my own way then.  It was my prerogative to impose terms,
+  and I did so most rigidly.  She was to keep me regularly informed as
+  to her place of residence, and not to make any radical change in the
+  latter without my sanction, and under no circumstances was she to use
+  my name, or let it be known that I had any acquaintanceship with her
+  whatever.  She was also to behave herself, and that thoroughly.
+  Failing the observance of these conditions, I would inexorably cut off
+  the supplies, and remove the child from her care in such wise that she
+  should never set eyes on it again.
+
+  "Did she revolt?  Of course she did--tried to, rather, more than once.
+  But it didn't answer; no, not for a moment.  She found that my eye
+  was ever upon her, that not a movement of hers passed unknown to me.
+  So she had the gumption to see that nothing was gained by kicking, and
+  that the wisest--in fact the only--plan was to make the best of it.
+  But I hadn't done with her.
+
+  "For years things went on quietly enough.  The child grew and throve;
+  and for this child the woman seemed to entertain an extraordinary
+  affection.  This I did nothing to lessen; for I saw therein a weapon
+  ready to hand whenever I should choose to require it.  So I sat still
+  and laughed; for I had not done with her, remember.  She had wrecked
+  my whole life and its chances, nor during the process, nor ever since,
+  had she shown one single redeeming point in her character, one single
+  sign of regret.
+
+  "All this took place many years ago, while you were hardly out of the
+  cradle, certainly not out of the nursery, for I am a great deal older
+  than you think, Philip.  To a certain extent, I watched you grow up,
+  unknown to your father or to yourself, for, I repeat, our meeting and
+  subsequent acquaintanceship was the outcome of no mere chance.  And
+  this brings us to the third act of the drama.
+
+  "Years went by, and your father, never having seen nor of late heard
+  of me since the day we stood up to each other's fire, ceased even to
+  think of me as other than a somewhat tragical incident in the past
+  history of his life.  He little dreamed, however, that all this time I
+  was watching him--was watching you.  Yes, I watched you as you grew
+  up.  I knew that you were as the very apple of your father's eye.
+  Through you I intended to strike him once more--to crush him.
+
+  "We met, you and I, as you remember.  You thought it a chance meeting,
+  but it was not.  In a week I had read off your character thoroughly,
+  exhaustively.  I knew you a great deal better than you knew yourself.
+
+  "Well, we went globe-trotting together.  And as you look back on it
+  you will recollect more than one occasion upon which, but for my
+  intervention, your father would have been rendered childless.  Why did
+  I intervene, you will say?  Well, for two reasons.  First, I chose to
+  pull the wires myself.  I intended to close my vendetta by a plan that
+  should be perfectly unique.  The hunter's instinct doesn't move him to
+  say, `No matter how the quarry falls, as long as it does fall.'  No;
+  he must bring it down himself, in his own way.  So it was with me.
+  The other reason will strike you as strange and incredible to the last
+  degree.  I had taken a liking to you.
+
+  "Yes, paradoxical as it may sound, paradoxical as it is, the fact
+  remains.  I had a sneaking weakness for you, Philip.  You were so
+  open-hearted, so ingenuous, so utterly helpless--in short, such an
+  ass.  It seemed to devolve on me to be ever pulling you out of some
+  tangle.  I began to waver in my purpose.  There were times when I
+  thought I would leave the whole thing, and had it been a matter
+  concerning your father alone I think I should have done so.  But there
+  was the woman.  She was in my hand now.  The time for her to feel its
+  weight was near.  She was living at ease, happy and contented, for, as
+  I said before, she was entirely wrapped up in her daughter.  She,
+  happy and contented after having poisoned my life, ruined me, dragged
+  my name in the mud--I don't mean in the mere act of relieving me of
+  her presence--but more in the shameful scandal, the horrible hell she
+  made of life while she was with me, so that wherever I went it was
+  rendered impossible--she happy and contented!  Decidedly the time had
+  come to strike.
+
+  "Even then I found myself still wavering on your account.  I wavered
+  to the last.  I honestly did my best to get you out of that Glover
+  hobble, and I believe I succeeded.  Had not chance upset your
+  relations with Alma Wyatt I believe I should have spared you, for I
+  should have been powerless against her counter-influence--or, at any
+  rate, I should have preferred to think so, if only as a pretext for
+  throwing up the whole scheme.  Then we went over to Zermatt, and here
+  chance stepped in again and took the reins a good deal out of my
+  hands.  But for your accident you could have returned to Zinal in a
+  few days.  Time and absence would have been all in your favour, and
+  you would have been saved.
+
+  "It was part of my design to bring you to Zermatt.  You remember we
+  were going there in the first instance, but chance diverted our plan.
+  Now, however, the time had come for me to draw in the circle of the
+  net.  I wavered no longer.
+
+  "We will touch briefly upon what followed.  The Daventers arrived,
+  and, caught at the rebound, you transferred your susceptible heart.
+  Even then I warned you.  You cannot say I did not give you every
+  chance.  My last words to you were words of warning.  But they were
+  utterly thrown away, as I knew they would be.  Well, there is very
+  little more to be said.  You walked into the trap with your eyes open
+  and--were caught.
+
+  "Do you know who this woman is who calls herself Mrs Daventer?  She
+  is no other than the woman whose infamies I have been detailing--she
+  who was and still is legally bound to me by the marriage laws of the
+  land.  And her daughter--_your bride_--do you guess now whose child
+  she is?  Mine--you will say.  No, you are wrong.  _Her father is your
+  father_, Philip Orlebar, and if you doubt me ask _him_."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+At this stage the paper fell from Philip's hand.  The whole world seemed
+going round with him.  It was as if he had received a stunning blow, a
+numbing shock.  The dead grim horror of the situation had not yet fully
+broken upon him.
+
+With an effort he picked up the paper again and read on:--
+
+  "You will remember that earlier in my narrative I said I disputed the
+  paternity of this child at the time of its birth.  Well, before
+  letting the matter go into court I obtained more than one opinion from
+  eminent counsel.  But every opinion was substantially in accord--to
+  the effect that the question of time rendered the matter such a very
+  near thing that I could not hope to contest the claim with the
+  slightest chance of success.  How does this affect you now, Philip
+  Orlebar?  Why, exactly as it affected me then.  Your chances of
+  obtaining a decree of nullity are so remote as to be practically
+  non-existent--even if you care to throw the case open to the public--
+  for remember, by the time you get this you will have been married two
+  whole days, and a court of law is a pretty scathing ordeal.  Nor will
+  the plea of fraud avail you, while I know for a fact that Laura was
+  totally unaware of the circumstances of her parentage, or that the
+  name under which she was married--her surname, to wit, was rightly any
+  other than Daventer.
+
+  "Well, you must accept the situation in all its bearings, and if you
+  cannot--as I firmly believe--break the tie by which you are legally,
+  but only legally, bound, you can console yourself, as I did, with the
+  reflection that it is now out of your power ever again to make a fool
+  of yourself.  Nothing further remains to be said, except that I
+  suppose never before did the strands of Fate weave together so
+  complete a web of what is commonly called poetic justice, so unique an
+  instance of retribution.  And remember this.  If your father ate sour
+  grapes and your teeth are set on edge, you must blame him--not me.
+
+  "Should you wish to meet me to talk over anything, I am still to be
+  found at my old quarters.  Of course, I am using the name by which you
+  have always known me.
+
+  "Richard Fordham."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+"THAT STING EACH OTHER HERE IN THE DUST."
+
+Father and son had the house to themselves, for the servants had long
+since gone to bed, and Lady Orlebar had done likewise, in a towering
+passion.  Softly Philip returned to the library, where he had left his
+father, and then for a few moments they stood silently gazing into each
+other's faces, the expression of each equally wretched, equally blank,
+equally hopeless.
+
+"He has told you--that infernal villain!" said Philip, at length.  "I
+can see it."  Sir Francis nodded.  He could not speak just then.  "And
+this," went on Philip, drawing forth Fordham's communication.  "You know
+what he says here?  Oh, father, for God's sake, is it true?"
+
+"It is impossible to say for certain," gasped the baronet, in a strange,
+jerky tone, after several futile attempts to speak.  "It is impossible
+to--prove anything--either way."
+
+He did not upbraid his son, as many a father might and would have done.
+He did not say, "If you _will_ go and throw your life away upon your own
+weak and foolish judgment, if you _will_ go and do things in such
+hurried and hole-and-corner fashion, if you _will_ go and buy a pig in a
+poke, you have got no more than you deserve--you have only yourself to
+thank?"  But he did think--and that bitterly--that but for the hurry and
+secrecy on the part of Philip in the matter, the weight of this horror
+would never have fallen upon them at all.
+
+"Father, what do _you_ think--candidly?  Do you think that scoundrel
+Fordham spoke the truth?"
+
+It was the bitterest moment in Sir Francis's life.  To answer in the
+negative would be but to perpetuate the horror; besides he could not so
+answer.  His glance avoided that of his son, and his head drooped
+forward on his chest, as he faltered, like a man who talks in his
+sleep--
+
+"I believe he did.  I cannot say otherwise--I believe he did."
+
+And then Philip knew that his life was ruined at the outset--wrecked
+almost before leaving port.
+
+"Father!" he said, at last, breaking the terrible silence which had
+fallen between them.  "What does this villain mean when he says,
+`Remember by the time you get this you will have been married two whole
+days...'?  Has he given it me two days sooner than he meant to?"
+
+"Oh no--oh no.  This would make it just about the time," muttered Sir
+Francis, drearily.
+
+"But how do you make that out?  How can I have been married two whole
+days when I was only married this morning?"
+
+The change in Sir Francis's demeanour was in the last degree startling.
+
+"What?" he almost shrieked.  "What's that you say, Phil?  You were only
+married this morning?"
+
+"Of course I was.  I left Lau--I left _her_--almost at the church door."
+And then he went on to detail Mrs Daventer's inexorable insistence
+upon his breaking the news to his father at once.
+
+"But the telegram, Phil?  What of the telegram?" cried Sir Francis,
+wildly.  "Look--look at the date.  The 22nd--that was yesterday.  And it
+says `this morning.'"
+
+Philip had caught up the slip of paper and was staring at it with a
+puzzled look.  "It's as you say, father," he said.  "The office stamp
+does give the 22nd.  Well, it is a mistake, and Fordham has been so far
+sold, for the most awful side of his ghastly, diabolical plot has been
+spared me.  What an infernal fiend, in the literal sense of the word,
+the man must be!"
+
+"Oh, thank God! thank God?" ejaculated poor Sir Francis, falling back in
+his chair.  "So you parted at the church door.  Oh, thank God! that
+unutterable horror is spared us.  But the rest.  My poor boy--my poor
+boy!  You can never see them again--it would be too fearful."
+
+"Once, father--once I must," was the reply, accompanied by a hard-set
+frown.  "Once--but once only."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Fordham's chambers were situated in a quiet street just off Park Lane.
+They were comfortable, but not luxurious, as became one who was a
+confirmed wanderer--here to-day, there to-morrow.  He never cared to
+accumulate a collection of things, for that very reason.  Here on the
+day after Philip's meeting with his father did Fordham sit.  He was
+writing--answering a letter from Wentworth urging him to join the latter
+at Les Avants the following week--a suggestion which rather fell in with
+his own inclinations--for London at the end of September was
+insufferably close, abominably dusty, and blatantly vulgar.  He hardly
+knew himself why he had stayed so long.
+
+Well, that was not quite accurate either.  He did know.  He wanted to
+watch the explosion of the infernal machine he had so craftily pieced
+together, to note its results.
+
+His letter finished, he pushed his chair from the table and began to
+think.  He was in one of his worst moods that morning--cool, cynical,
+utterly without ruth.  As he thought on his interview of the previous
+evening he laughed at himself because of the temporary softening he had
+undergone.  When others had got the drop on him, did they relent?  Not
+they.  Now he had got the drop on them, why should he feel any
+compunction?  He would not.  While in this vein he heard steps quickly
+ascending the stairs.  The door opened and there entered--Philip.
+
+The latter stopped short.  At first it seemed as if he could not speak.
+His broad chest was heaving, and a red spot burned in each of his livid
+cheeks.  Then, slowly, he brought out three words--
+
+"You--infernal villain!"
+
+Fordham slightly shrugged his shoulders, and the expression of his face
+was not goodly to look upon.
+
+"Is that all you came here to say?  Well, at any rate you can't say I
+didn't warn you--didn't give you every chance.  Why, man, I did nothing
+but warn you."
+
+"Yes--by the rule of contraries.  And now what have _you_ got to say?
+Putting myself aside for the present, for what you have done to my
+father you shall answer to me.  Yes, to me!"
+
+His tone had attained a loud and threatening pitch, and he made a step
+forward.  Fordham, who had risen when he first came in, drew himself
+together with a nearly imperceptible movement which reminded one of
+nothing so much as a snake ready to strike.  Thus they confronted each
+other, these two who had been such close, such intimate friends.
+
+"What have I got to say?" repeated Fordham, dropping out his words with
+a steely deliberation.  "The question ought rather to come from me.  No;
+stop!  Stand back!" he added, warningly, as the other made towards him,
+a move whose nature was unmistakably aggressive.  "You'll do no good in
+that line, I promise you.  Why remember, boy, all the best tricks you
+know with your hands I taught you, and there remain a great many better
+ones for you to learn.  I'm the best man of the two in that way."
+
+None knew this better than Philip, tall, powerful, and in good training
+as he himself was.  The other was a splendid boxer, and all wire and
+whipcord.  He would stand no chance against him.
+
+"Will you meet me in the old-fashioned way, then?" he said, with
+difficulty restraining his rage.  "We can cross the Channel and exchange
+a few shots.  What!  You won't!" for the other had burst into a derisive
+chuckle.  "Hang it, Fordham, you may pretend to laugh, but I never
+thought you were such an infernal coward!"
+
+"You may well talk about hanging," replied Fordham, with that same
+sardonic chuckle.  "Do you know, you young fool--do you know that all
+this time you have been bellowing out enough to hang you a dozen times
+over in this happy contingency for which you are thirsting?  Do you
+know, also, that in the event of my being the one to go under, one
+single word construable into an arrangement of the meeting, uttered by
+you over here would be enough to hang you as surely as if you had cut a
+man's throat to steal his watch?"
+
+It was Philip's turn to look slightly foolish now; and in spite of his
+anger and misery he did so--such is the power of a master-mind and a
+sarcastic tongue.
+
+"Just do me the favour to open that door suddenly, will you?" went on
+Fordham.  "Ah!  The coast's clear, is it?  Well, then"--as the door was
+shut again--"if you really mean business, this is how you ought to have
+put it: `Fordham, old man, are you really going to St. Jean-de-Luz this
+week or next?  Because if so I might join you there.'"
+
+Philip started, and stared.  Then it dawned on him.
+
+"And where the deuce is St. Jean-de-Luz?" he said.
+
+"About equidistant between Biarritz and the Spanish border, and very
+near both," was the tranquil answer.  "Well, I was going to Les Avants,
+but if you prefer it I will alter my destination.  Do you prefer it?"
+with a keen glance into the other's eyes.
+
+"I understand," said Philip, slowly.  "Yes, certainly, I do prefer it."
+
+"Very well, then.  There is no more to be said.  I will be at St.
+Jean-de-Luz by the middle of next week at the latest.  And now a word of
+caution for your own sake.  Do not breathe one syllable with regard to
+our--er--rendezvous, while you are on this side of the English Channel.
+Remember that on this side of that geographical feature we are both
+within British jurisdiction.  I suppose you don't want to spend the rest
+of your life in penal servitude in the event of gaining your object?"
+
+"I understand," said Philip, again.  "Till this day week, then--over
+there."
+
+"You may rely upon me."  And then the speaker rang the bell, and Philip,
+hardly knowing where he went, found himself following a manservant to
+the street door.
+
+He had gone in there on violence intent.  That was a mistake.  Fordham
+was right to keep cool.  It is what he ought to have done himself.  Ah,
+well, he was learning his lesson gradually.  He had acted upon impulse
+hitherto--the warm, generous impulse of youth.  No more of that.  But he
+would be cool enough that day week, when they two should meet.
+
+No compunction did he feel--nothing but hate, and horror, and loathing
+towards his former friend.  The diabolical and coldblooded cruelty which
+could predestine his life to shipwreck from the very cradle, which could
+watch him grow up, and then under the guise of friendship lure him to
+his ruin, effaced at one sweep all the recollection of their former
+intimacy, of many an act of kindness on the part of the older man, of
+strong and reliable comradeship in moments of danger.  And his father--
+if he had injured Fordham in times past, he had given him full
+satisfaction.  That ought to have closed the matter.  And now this
+coldblooded villain, after all these years, rose again to persecute and
+hound him into the grave.  Never while he was there.  And then at the
+recollection of his father's white, stricken face and pitiable aspect,
+Philip clenched his fists and wished he had insisted upon an earlier
+meeting.
+
+When he reached the Great Western terminus the Welsh train was already
+moving, but with an effort and at imminent risk to life and limb he
+managed to fling himself into a compartment, and then, speeding over the
+familiar landscape, his thoughts turned from those he was leaving behind
+to those to whom he was going.  Why, it was very little more than
+twenty-four hours since he had parted from his bride, and what a
+cataclysm had taken place within that time.  His bride!  Horror!  How
+should he even meet her, knowing what he did?  How could he even bear to
+look at her?  And then, as he sat there throughout the day, gazing out
+vacantly upon the flying trees and hedges, the scales seemed to drop
+from his eyes.  He had fallen a prey--a contemptibly easy prey--to a
+couple of designing adventuresses.  All the kind and gracious attentions
+of the mother--the winsome ways of the daughter--all struck him now as
+so many arts to lure him into their net, and they had succeeded.  He had
+fallen a victim to a couple of the basest tools ever employed to carry
+out a base and villainous scheme.  Well, after that night they should
+look upon his face no more.
+
+Then another thought struck him.  If the more horrible side of Fordham's
+scheme, as set forth in his revelation, were true, Mrs Daventer--
+so-called--could not be in ignorance of it.  Could she, as a mother,--
+under no matter what pressure of circumstances--consent to become a
+party to so monstrous a crime?  It did not seem possible.  Yet, to poor
+Phil, now beginning to realise the sublimity of iniquity to which some
+will soar, it occurred that the woman acting under baser, stronger
+motives, might even have been brought to sacrifice her own daughter.
+Well, she would know, at any rate, and--she should tell.
+
+Chance favoured him.  It was late when he reached the house.  Laura,
+having given him up for that night, had gone upstairs; but her mother
+was still sitting in the drawing-room reading.  The French window,
+neither curtained nor shuttered, stood ajar, for the night was hot and
+stuffy.  Standing there for a moment in the starlight, the fresh salt
+air fanning his brow, the murmur of the waves on the beach hard by,
+humming confusedly in his ears, Philip felt quite sick and faint.  He
+had been continuously on the move since this horror had burst upon him--
+had eaten next to nothing, and had not slept a wink--and now it was all
+beginning to tell.  Recovering himself, he pushed open the window and
+stepped into the room.
+
+"Why, Philip!  What a way to come back!" cried Mrs Daventer, recovering
+from the momentary start this unexpected invasion had thrown her into.
+"Laura will be delighted!  Why--what is the matter?  Has anything gone
+wrong?" she broke off, noting his haggard face and the miserable
+expression of his eyes; and her own cheeks grew livid with a horrible
+boding fear.
+
+His first answer was to step to the door and turn the key.
+
+"We had better not be interrupted for a few minutes," he said shortly.
+"Now I want you to tell me.  What is Cecil Garcia to you?"
+
+She started, swayed, as if to fall, then recovered herself, as if by an
+effort of will.
+
+"You know, then?" she gasped.  "_He_ has told you?"
+
+"Everything?"
+
+"Everything!  Oh, the infamous fiend!  He was always that way."
+
+"Maybe.  Now I must have an answer to this!  Who is Laura's father?
+Cecil Garcia or--Sir Francis Orlebar?"
+
+She started from her chair, and stood gazing at him, unutterable horror
+in her eyes, her lips livid and shaking.  Her next words were gulped
+out, as though between the gasps of strangulation.
+
+"He--told you--?"
+
+"That your daughter's father is my father.  That I had married my
+half-sister.  Is it true?"
+
+She tried to speak--the words would not come.  The full horror--the
+diabolical ingenuity--of Fordham's plan, burst upon her now--for the
+first time, and burst upon her with crushing force.  This was the blow
+then.  While the barest taint of such suspicion lurked in Philip's mind,
+Laura might go through life alone.  This was how Fordham had chosen to
+strike her.  And she had half credited him with benevolent motives!
+Him, a devil in human shape!
+
+"Is it true?" repeated Philip.
+
+But his voice hummed in her ears with a far-away sound.  She made a
+convulsive clutch at her throat, gasping as if to speak.  No words would
+come.  Then swaying heavily, with a low cry that was half a groan, she
+tottered and fell.
+
+"She has answered the question," said Philip to himself, as he caught
+her just in time and placed her on the sofa.  "She has answered the
+question, and now I know the worst."
+
+Stepping to the door he unlocked it, just as Laura was turning the
+handle.  She had heard her mother's cry and the sound of voices.  Among
+the latter she recognised that of Philip, and had flown down, grievously
+dreading that something had happened.
+
+And at sight of him all her fears were realised.  That pale, stern man
+with the haggard eyes, and the hand stretched forth as though to bar her
+approach, was that her bright-hearted Philip, who had left her so gaily,
+yet so lovingly, but the morning before?  Heavens, what did it all mean?
+
+"No; it is all over," he said, putting forth his hand again, as she was
+about to fling herself upon his neck.  "I know all now.  Heavens--it is
+too horrible!" he added with a shudder.  "But I suppose you are in the
+secret too.  To think of it!"
+
+"I think you have gone mad," she answered, a defiant fierceness taking
+the place of the soft love tones wherein she had at first addressed him.
+"But--what have you been doing to my mother?" she added in half a
+scream, as she caught sight of the latter lying there white and still,
+and rushed over to her side.
+
+"She has fainted.  You had better see after her while I go for a doctor.
+The knowledge that I had been made aware of the infamous plot to which
+I have fallen a victim has been too much for her."
+
+Even in the midst of her attentions to her fainting mother the girl
+turned upon him with flashing eyes and a livid countenance.
+
+"Infamous plot!" she cried.  "You dare?  Mark this, then.  Never come
+near me again--never again until you have apologised most humbly to her
+and to me.  I mean it!  Do you hear?"
+
+"That makes it easier," he replied, with a faint sneer.  "Now I am going
+for the doctor."  And he went out.  "_She_ is in it too," he
+soliloquised as he sped along through the cool night.  "It is a horrible
+business--horrible--horrible!  But the mother?  Well, she answered the
+question.  Still, when she comes round, I shall insist upon her
+answering it again in words, or in writing."
+
+But his question was destined to remain unanswered, for Mrs Daventer
+never did come round.  A couple of hours after Philip's return with the
+medical man she died.  But she never spoke again.
+
+The doctors pronounced it a plain case of heart disease, though they
+wrapped their definition up in a layer of technical jargon that was
+anything but plain.  So the only person who could have cleared up the
+doubt was silent for ever, and the true secret of Laura's paternity lay
+buried in her mother's grave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+"FOR A BROTHER'S BLOOD."
+
+The wind soughed mournfully through the great beech-forests which cover
+the slopes leading up to the Roncevalles plateau.
+
+It was early morning--gloomy and lowering.  The two occupants of the
+open carriage wending its way at a footpace up the steep mountain road
+were well wrapped up, for at that elevation, late summer as it was, the
+air was biting and chill.
+
+"And so you are determined to go through with this, Orlebar?" one of
+them was saying.  "Can it not be arranged even now?"
+
+"Certainly not," was the brief, determined answer.  "I am going to do my
+level best to rid the world of the most inhuman, damnable monster that
+ever disgraced it."
+
+"You will have to be as cool as--as this air, then, Orlebar.  Your
+friend--your enemy I should say rather--is something like a dead shot.
+By the way, your story is one of the strangest I ever heard in my life;
+and not the oddest part of it to me is that you should still persist in
+choosing this place."
+
+"Because it _is_ this place.  You were here at the time of--of that
+other affair, Major.  You will be able to place us upon the exact spot.
+I have a presentiment.  On the very spot where that villain wounded my
+father I shall kill him.  That is why I have chosen it."
+
+The other shook his head gravely.  He was an older man than he looked--
+and he looked past middle age.  Major Fox's own career had been an
+eventful one.  He had seen active service under the flag of two foreign
+powers severally, and, moreover, was reckoned an authority on hostile
+meetings of a private nature, at many of which he had assisted, not
+always in the character of second.  That the object of this early drive
+was a hostile meeting the above fragment of conversation will clearly
+show.
+
+Where is the sunny-tempered, light-hearted Philip Orlebar of old?
+Dead--dead and buried.  He who now sits here, pale, stern, gloomy, with
+the aspect of a man upon whose life a great blow has fallen--whom that
+blow has aged a dozen years at least--surely these two personalities can
+have nothing in common?
+
+Onward and upward, higher and higher wends the carriage.  Then the
+acclivity ends, and surmounting the roll of its brow a great flat wooded
+space, with here and there the distant hump of a mountain jutting
+against the sky, lies spread out in front.  It is the Roncevalles
+plateau.
+
+A bell clangs forth, slow and sepulchral upon the raw morning air.  Its
+measured, intermittent toll, heard beneath the gloomy lour of the
+overcast heavens, would be depressing enough under ordinary
+circumstances.  But now it strikes the hearers as immeasurably ominous,
+for it is the death-toll.
+
+Standing up, the Major, speaking in fluent French, impresses a few
+directions upon the Basque driver.  The latter nods and whips up his
+horses.  As they trot past the quaint, old-world monastery, with its red
+roofs lying against an appropriate background of foliage, dark hooded
+figures could be seen gliding about.
+
+"That changes the scene again, Orlebar," remarked Major Fox.  "A few
+minutes ago one might almost have expected to meet Caesar and his
+legions emerging from the great beech-forests.  Now this brings us to
+more mediaeval times again.  Hallo!  What is it?"
+
+For the horses had been suddenly reined in.  Then the driver drew them
+up to the side of the road.
+
+A mournful, wailing, dirgelike sound was heard in front.  Standing up in
+the vehicle, its occupants made out a number of white-clad figures
+advancing round a bend in the road.  The dark-covered horizontal burden
+borne in the midst; the glitter of the crucifix moving slowly in front;
+the measured and solemn chant; the clang of the bell from the tower--all
+told the nature of that procession advancing along the desolate and
+lonely wooded plateau.  Its errand was one of death; and they, the
+unlooked-for spectators, they, too, were bound upon an errand of death.
+
+"_Requiem aeternum dona ei Domine: et lux perpetua luceat ei_" chanted
+the singers.  The Basque driver doffed his _beret_ and bent his head
+devoutly as the _cortege_ went by, and the Major and Philip lifted their
+hats.  But the words, the chant, struck upon the tatter's ear with
+indescribable import, for they brought back a very different scene.  He
+saw again the arching blue of the cloudless heavens above the Val
+d'Anniviers, the rugged cliff and the feathery pine forest, the vernal
+slopes and the flower-strewn graves.  Again the dull roar of the
+mountain torrent rose upon the air, and Alma Wyatt's voice was in his
+ears as upon that glowing morning in the churchyard at Vissoye.  And now
+he heard it again, that chant for the dead, here in the wild solitudes
+of this Pyrenean forest country, swelling through the murk of the
+lowering heavens.  And he himself was going forth to death--to meet
+death or to deal it out to another.
+
+"_Si iniquitates observaveris Domine: Domine quis sustinebit_!"  The
+chant rolled on, now sinking fainter as the funeral procession receded.
+Heavens! here was a comment on the errand of hate and vengeance--the
+errand of blood which had brought these two abroad that morning.
+
+"If I were inclined to be superstitious, I should take that incident to
+be unlucky," said the Major, with a jerk of his thumb in the direction
+followed by the receding _cortege_, "but I'm not, so it doesn't matter.
+_En avant, Michel_."
+
+But the driver as he obeyed turned half round on his box to ask for
+directions, with the result that the carriage turned abruptly off into a
+bypath which penetrated deeper into the forest.  A few hundred yards
+along this and the Major called a halt.
+
+"We will leave the trap here, Orlebar.  The place is close at hand, and
+the other party is sure to be on the spot."
+
+"You seem to know it well, Major," said Philip.  "Why, I couldn't have
+ferretted it out to save my life."
+
+"My dear fellow, I have been here before--in times past," was the
+answer, given with a touch of dryness.
+
+Voices were now heard just ahead of them, and as they emerged into a
+sequestered open glade three figures were standing in a group chatting.
+They belonged to Fordham and two strangers--one mustachioed and
+grizzled, the other mustachioed and dark.
+
+"Good morning--good morning," said the Major, briskly, raising his hat
+as he stepped forward.
+
+"M. le docteur Etchegaray--M. le Major Fox," introduced Fordham.
+
+The dark stranger bowed, and the Major bowed, and there was elaborate
+hat-lifting on both sides.  Then the Major passed on the introduction to
+his principal, to whom he further effected that of the other stranger,
+who was Fordham's second, and whom he named as "M. de Verrieux."
+
+Beyond a slight raising of the hat such as etiquette demanded, no
+recognition passed between the two principals.  The seconds and the
+medical man drew apart for a few moments' conference.
+
+"Is it settled that the matter is to proceed, then?" said M. de Verrieux
+when this was ended.  Both principals nodded.  "_Enfin--a l'affaire_,"
+he went on.
+
+On one side of the glade was a great dead tree trunk blazed by
+lightning.  The seconds had decided to place their men twenty-five paces
+apart in such wise that the white trunk should be equidistant from
+either.  The weapons were Colt's revolvers, but each shot was to be
+fired by word of command.
+
+The gloom of the morning deepened.  A spot or two of rain fell upon the
+weapons as they were handed to the principals, and the wind moaned
+dismally among the tree-tops.  They stood up, facing each other, those
+two who had been friends.  They stood up, silent, motionless as that
+death which they were about to deal to each other.  Again through the
+murky stillness there tolled forth from the monastery tower that distant
+dirge-bell.
+
+"_Attention, messieurs_!" cried M. de Verrieux.  "_Un--deux--Trois_!"
+
+Both pistols cracked simultaneously.  The hum of Philip's ball passed
+just over his adversary's head.  Fordham, however, without moving his
+elbow from his side, had pointed his weapon almost vertically in the
+air, and had pressed the trigger.  He stood cool, impassive, and
+motionless.
+
+"The affair has proceeded with the greatest honour to both sides,"
+declared M. de Verrieux.  "We may now, I presume, consider it closed?"
+
+"I trust so," said the Major, looking at Philip, whom he was heartily
+glad to get so well out of it.  But the latter, to his dismay, replied
+shortly--
+
+"By no means.  I don't consider it has begun."
+
+The seconds looked at each other, then at their principals.  M. de
+Verrieux shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"_Enfin!  Puisque Monsieur le desire_," he said.
+
+"Take care he isn't committing suicide," said Fordham, with a queer
+flash in his eyes, and his brows met in that extraordinarily forbidding
+frown of his.  But the remark was met by a somewhat sharp protest on the
+part of Major Fox, who declared that it was contrary to all precedent
+for one principal even to address the other under the circumstances, let
+alone utter what sounded uncommonly like a taunt.  Fordham recognised
+frankly this infringement of etiquette, and apologised elaborately.
+
+Again the two stood facing each other.
+
+Never to his dying day would Philip forget that moment, and the still,
+sepulchral silence of the great forest, the faint earthy smell of moist
+vegetation, the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops, the mournful toll
+of the far-away dirge-bell.  All the events of his later life swept
+through his mind in a flash--Alma Wyatt--the sweet, sunlit mountain
+slopes--the blue lake, and the shining glacier--then that other in her
+dark beauty--the dance and sparkle of the sea, and the expanse of yellow
+sand on the low-lying Welsh coast--then the frightful disclosure--his
+own horror--his father's agony--the parting--Mrs Daventer's death.  All
+passed before him in vivid retrospect, as he stood there to receive the
+fire of the man whom up to a week ago he had reckoned his dearest
+friend.
+
+The word was given.  Again both pistols cracked together.  Fordham only
+moving half his arm, had exactly repeated his former manoeuvre.  He had
+fired straight up at the sky.  At the same time he was seen ever so
+slightly to wince.
+
+"Are you touched?" said the Frenchman, eagerly.  "No?  Ha--I thought--"
+
+"It doesn't seem much like it," answered Fordham, slowly.
+
+Then the seconds had their innings.  On one point they were thoroughly
+agreed.  The affair could be allowed to go no further.  It had been
+conducted in a manner which was to the last degree creditable to both
+gentlemen concerned, pronounced M. de Verrieux animatedly, and he
+trusted they would both do each other the honour of shaking hands with
+each other.  After which pleasing ceremony he, the speaker, would be
+delighted if they and the whole party would do him the honour of
+breakfasting with him, and doing justice to the best wines the cellar of
+the country inn could supply.  This the Major emphatically seconded,
+though he knew too well there would be no handshaking or any such
+friendly parting between his two fellow-countrymen.
+
+Philip, for his part, said nothing.  The decision of the seconds was
+final.  Nor could he, whatever his wrongs, bring himself to go on firing
+at a man who was determined not to return his fire.  Even then--so
+desperately contradictory is human nature--even then, without in anywise
+detracting from his own wretchedness and desperation, he was conscious
+of a weakness towards his old friend, a strange sense of relenting.  At
+that moment he rejoiced that he had not the other's death upon his
+hands.
+
+"Well, since there is to be no more shooting," said Fordham, at length,
+speaking in an easy, careless tone, "I may as well convince you that I
+was not bragging just now.  Look at that knot in the blazed tree--there
+about four feet from the ground."
+
+He raised his pistol, and with scarcely a moment's aim fired.  The knot,
+a flat one, and about the size of a crown piece, was seen to splinter.
+The ball had made a plumb centre.
+
+"Look again," he went on, and again his pistol cracked.  The knot split
+into a gaping gash and the splinters flew from it.  He had planted his
+second bullet right upon the first one.  Ejaculations broke from the
+spectators in their respective tongues.
+
+"Well, Mr Fordham," said the Major, "I think I may say, on behalf of my
+principal and myself, that we appreciate your courtesy to the full.  M.
+de Verrieux, if you will do me the pleasure of meeting me this evening
+or to-morrow morning at St. Jean-Pied-de-Port as arranged, we will draw
+up the usual _proces-verbal_.  Gentlemen, I have the honour to salute
+you, and to wish you good morning."
+
+Then, amid much elaborate hat-lifting, Major Fox and his principal
+walked away, while M. de Verrieux and the doctor lit their cigars and
+proceeded to put away the pistols.  Suddenly a cry escaped the medico.
+It was echoed by the other.  For Fordham was lying on the ground as pale
+as death.  He was in a dead faint.
+
+"And he said he wasn't hit?" ejaculated the doctor.  "I could have sworn
+I saw him wince.  Yes! look there," pointing to a hole in the fallen
+man's trousers just above the left knee.  "There it is.  He held his
+hand over it all the time, do you see, very cleverly too.  Too proud to
+give way before the young one.  Well, well; he _is_ a man.  But it is
+wonderful--wonderful."
+
+All this while the speaker had been ripping up the leg of the prostrate
+man's trousers.
+
+"Here it is," he went on triumphantly.  "_Ah, ca_!  But there will be no
+probing required.  The ball has gone clean through."
+
+"Is the wound a dangerous one?" said the other.  "It doesn't seem to
+bleed much."
+
+"_C'est selon_!" replied the doctor, with a shrug of the shoulders.
+"The haemorrhage is, as you say, slight; but the tendon is badly torn--
+and--_he will carry the mark of this day with him to his grave.  He will
+walk with a limp for the remainder of his life_."
+
+And Fordham waking up just then to consciousness under the influence of
+the cordial which his second was administering, heard the words, and
+smiled grimly to himself.
+
+"Poetic justice, with a vengeance!" he thought.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+AT THE END OF HIS LIFE.
+
+Midway between Nyon and Rolle, the steamer _Mont Blanc_ was shearing her
+arrowy course through the blue waters of Lake Leman, heading for the
+latter place.
+
+Her decks were covered with passengers, mostly of French nationality--
+light-hearted, chattering, cheerful souls, talking volubly and all at
+once--talking the harder apparently in inverse ratio to the interest of
+the topic under consideration.
+
+Right in the stern of the boat, beneath the upper deck, his back against
+the end of the saloon, sat a solitary Englishman.  He was smoking a
+cigar and pretending to read, but it was patent to the most casual
+observer that the book before him occupied very little of his attention
+indeed, for he was gazing out upon the sapphire surface of the lake and
+its green and gold setting of engirdling mountains, with an expression
+of settled sadness upon his extremely attractive countenance, which had
+no business to be seen upon the face of one so young.
+
+Suddenly there was a rush of feet, and a hat came skimming along the
+lower deck, a broad-brimmed straw hat--a feminine hat.  Springing from
+his seat he caught it, just in time to save it from going overboard, and
+turned to hand it to its pursuer and owner.
+
+"Thanks so much," said a sweet voice.  Then the speaker stopped short in
+amazement and changed colour.  "Why, it's Mr Orlebar--pardon me--Sir
+Philip, I should have said."
+
+"It used to be `Philip' at one time, Alma," was the reply, with the
+ghost of a sad smile.  And then these two stood looking into each
+other's eyes in silence.  Neither seemed able to say a word.
+
+It was as she had implied.  Sir Francis Orlebar was no more.  Never
+recovering from the prostration into which he had been thrown by
+Fordham's revelation, he had sunk into a decline and had succumbed three
+months later, tended by his son devotedly to the last.  Then Philip,
+reserving enough for his modest wants, had apportioned the remainder
+between his stepmother and that other who had a legal claim upon him.
+This done, he had left Claxby Court and had started upon his travels
+again.
+
+She who was his wife, in the eye of the law, he had never set eyes on
+since that fateful night.  He had tried by every means in his power to
+find some channel through which the mystery might be cleared up, but in
+vain.  The only person who could have done so was dead, and her last
+words, her last look, her last behaviour, conclusively confirmed him in
+his very darkest conjectures.  The bare recollection of the subject was
+unutterably nauseous and repulsive to him now.
+
+Old Glover had in due course served him with a writ in the threatened
+breach of promise action.  Nothing could be more repellent than to be
+dragged forth into notoriety thus, yet what could he do?  He was too
+poor to offer any compromise, even if it were not the persistently
+rancorous intention of that estimable British merchant to exact his
+pound of flesh in spite of everything, and that pound of flesh the
+dragging of him--Philip--into notoriety and a court of law.  But at the
+last moment chance had befriended him.  For the beauteous Edith had
+succumbed to the prismatic attractions of a ritualistic parson of fine
+presence and ample means, and this cleric had, under pain of cancelling
+his own engagement, laid a stern embargo on his future bride making an
+exhibition of herself in a public court.  So, whereas it is manifestly
+impossible to bring an action for breach of promise failing the consent
+of the interesting plaintiff, old Glover was obliged to deny himself the
+gratification of his rancour, and to console himself characteristically
+with the sound commercial reflection that, after all, they had got much
+the better bargain of the two.  For the parson was well off, and would
+very likely be a bishop one day, or, at any rate an archdeacon, whereas
+Philip Orlebar, though now a baronet, would always have been as poor as
+Job, and would never have done any good for himself or anybody else.  In
+which conjecture he was probably right.
+
+"It's an odd thing I should not have seen you all this time," said
+Philip at last, realising that it was necessary to say something.  "Yet
+you must have come on board at Geneva."
+
+"No--at Nyon."
+
+"_At_ Nyon!  That would account for it.  I have been sitting here almost
+ever since we left Geneva, and, of course, I can't see the gangway from
+here, or who lands, or who embarks.  Have you been staying there?"
+
+"Only a few days.  The people I am with were there to see some friends
+of theirs.  But--between ourselves--it was rather slow."
+
+"You are not with the General then?"
+
+"Oh no!  Don't I wish I was!" she added, with an eager lowering of her
+voice.  "But there, I ought not to say that.  These are a very kind sort
+of people, but a trifle `heavy.'  I am only travelling _with_ them, not
+their guest."
+
+Now what the deuce did Philip care about the estimability or other
+idiosyncrasies of the people she was travelling with?  He saw only her--
+her as he remembered her in times past--her as he had seen her many a
+time since, waking and in his dreams--her as he had seen her the first
+time of all, here on the deck of this very ship.  He detected the
+sympathetic softening of the great grey eyes, the saddened inflection of
+that voice, the first note of which had thrilled his whole being, and
+his heart tightened.  For, after all, he was young, and, in spite of the
+blow which had fallen upon his life, all possibilities for him were not
+dead.
+
+And she?  Knowing something of his history since they parted--though not
+the exact nature of the grim skeleton so carefully kept locked up--
+knowing something of his history, we say, for the world is small and
+tongues are long, she felt her heart go out to him as it had never done
+before, as she never thought possible that it could have done.  The
+sunny laugh had gone out of his face for ever; leaving an expression, a
+stamp of hopelessness, which to her was infinitely pathetic.  It was all
+that she could do to keep down the rush of tears which welled to her
+eyes as they looked up into his sad ones.  What, we say, did he, did
+either of them, care about the heaviness or otherwise of the people she
+was travelling with?  Yet of such trivialities will the lips force
+themselves to chatter while the heart is bursting.
+
+"Where and how is the dear old General now?" he went on.  "And your
+aunt?"
+
+"They have gone to live at a place in the country--a few miles from
+Rushtonborough.  That is near your home, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," he said eagerly, and the possibilities began to stir around and
+quicken into life.  Then his tone relapsed again.  "Do you ever go down
+there yourself?"
+
+"I haven't yet.  They have only just gone there.  And now"--
+hesitatingly, "I think I must go back to my people.  They will be
+wondering what has become of me."
+
+"Not yet--Alma."
+
+The pleading tone melted her not very strongly formed resolution.  She
+paused.  The end of the saloon hid them effectually, though, of course,
+they only held this snug corner to themselves on the precarious tenure
+of chance.
+
+"Tell me a little more about yourself," he went on.  "Are you still
+living at that place you hated so--Surbiton?"
+
+"N-no," as if the topic was distasteful.  "By the way, I saw you there
+once."
+
+"But--I have never been there in my life," he answered, very mystified.
+
+"Not on land, perhaps--but by water.  You were in a boat--and the one I
+was in as nearly as possible ran you down.  I was steering--or rather,
+ought to have been," she added with a little smile.  "You didn't see me,
+but I recognised you."
+
+"I remember now," he said.  "And was that you?  Yes, I remember
+perfectly.  Oh, Alma--if only I _had_ seen you!"
+
+It seemed to escape him in spite of himself, and it conveyed volumes.
+There had been just a spice of bitterness in the motive that had urged
+her to let him know she had seen him and with whom, but now she would
+have given worlds to withdraw the remark--such a turning of the knife in
+the wound did it seem.  And now she realised plainer than words could
+tell, that if he had seen her on the occasion in question, it would have
+made all the difference in the world to her life and his.
+
+"What is this place we are coming to?" he said, as the steamer's bell
+begun to ring to the accompaniment of a sensible slackening of the
+paddles.
+
+"Rolle.  The next is Morges, and then Ouchy, where we land.  We are
+going to stay a few days in Lausanne."
+
+"What, at this time of year?  Why you will be roasted?"
+
+"So we shall.  But the Sitgreaves want to get some things there before
+going on to the mountains."
+
+"Are you going on to the mountains?  Where?  Perhaps we may meet again?"
+And once more the possibilities were all astir.
+
+"Philip, I think we had better not," she answered, with her eyes full
+upon his.  "It would not be fair to--you."
+
+"Oh, I can keep myself in hand all right," he replied, with a hard laugh
+from which he could not altogether eliminate the suspicion of a tremor.
+"Don't be afraid.  I've learnt a thing or two since we last had the
+pleasure of meeting."
+
+The steamer was under way again, skimming merrily over the sapphire
+surface.  The chit-chat and laughter of the other passengers rose
+gleefully upon the air, and in the saloon the pop of corks, the clink of
+knives and forks.  There is solitude in a crowd--stillness in noise.
+
+"Where are you going to now, Philip?" she said.
+
+"Oh, I don't quite know!  I've booked to Territet.  Perhaps I'll walk up
+and put in a few days at the old shop--perhaps I'll go on to Saas or the
+Bel Alp and do some climbing.  Can't tell till I get there."
+
+She made no answer.  This was not the easy, light-hearted talk of the
+old times.  There was a bitter, reckless ring about it that was
+unmistakable.  The speaker literally did not care where he went or what
+he did.  Still she did not leave him.
+
+"I wonder if it has ever occurred to you all this time Alma," he went on
+in a softer tone, "that it was here--on board this very ship--we first
+met?  Not exactly that perhaps, but first saw each other, which amounts
+to the same thing."
+
+"Yes, it has."
+
+"It has?  Well, it seems a strange chance, a strange stroke of Fate,
+that we should meet here again--here of all places.  How long ago was
+it?  Ten years--twenty?"
+
+"No; only three."
+
+"Well, it is like twenty to me.  I tell you I feel as if I had come to
+the end of my life."
+
+"You must not say that--believe me you must not.  Time will do wonders
+for you.  You have a long life before you yet, and great opportunities."
+
+But although she spoke bravely she could hardly succeed in steadying her
+voice.  All the old feeling, all the feeling which had lain dormant
+within her since that stray glimpse on the river, was surging into
+activity.  Philip Orlebar, crushed, saddened, all the elasticity burned
+out of his young life by the searing irons of sorrow, reigned king in
+her heart, as Philip Orlebar, sanguine, buoyant, light-hearted, could
+never have done.  And the change, sad, infinitely deplorable as it was,
+had solidified and stamped his character, not altogether to the
+disadvantage of that possession.  But for that one tremendous
+impediment, in all human probability lifelong, Alma would have needed no
+pressure to have returned love for love in full and abundant measure.
+
+"Great opportunities?" he echoed.  "Yes, I may have had once--before you
+condemned me unheard.  Great Heaven! you had no pity--no consideration
+for me then, and now it is too late."
+
+It was cruel.  The tears which she had striven so heroically to repress
+brimmed, overflowed.  They fell, each shining drop burning into the
+heart of the spectator as a drop of molten lead.  And upon the blue
+radiant lake the measured paddle-stroke of the steamer beat strong and
+joyous, the laughter and chat of the holiday-seekers rang out light and
+cheery.
+
+"Darling love--love of my life--my only love!" he uttered, in
+heartbroken tones, "what am I to say?  Why--why were you so hasty?  And
+now it is too late."
+
+"Yes, I was hasty; I know it now," she replied.  "But I tried to make
+amends.  Oh, Philip! why did you not answer--take some notice of my
+letter?"
+
+"Your--what?"
+
+His face had turned deathly white.  Already he saw that some horrible
+_contretemps_ had served to divert from him a life's happiness.
+
+"My letter?  I wrote to you at Zermatt directly I heard of your
+accident.  You took no notice, so I concluded you did not want to hear
+of me any more."
+
+"Alma, as sure as I stand here a living man, I have never received a
+line of your writing in my life."
+
+It was her turn to grow pale now.
+
+"But I did write.  I directed to your hotel at Zermatt.  What can it
+mean?  You never received it?"
+
+He burst into a harsh laugh--a laugh infinitely more moving than tears.
+
+"What can it mean?" he repeated.  "It means this: it is part of the
+whole hellish plot.  That letter was intercepted by the hand that for
+its owner's vile purposes lured me to my ruin.  But that hand is
+_burning_ now for that act of wickedness--that one act alone--that act
+which ruined my life.  It is burning in another world--if there be
+another world--for the woman, its owner, is dead."
+
+"I begin to see," she said, her eyes brimming with love and pity.  "Yes,
+I can see it all now."
+
+The bell rang again, and the paddles slackened.  The _Mont Blanc_ was
+sweeping up to the _debarcadere_ at Morges.  The next stoppage would be
+Ouchy, and there they must part.
+
+"Do you remember that day we were crossing over to Bouveret on this very
+boat?" he went on.  "Do you remember our conversation as we passed
+Chillon Castle?  You remarked then, _a propos_ of all its mediaeval
+horrors, instruments of torture, and so forth--that there seemed a time
+when the world must have been under Satanic rule instead of under that
+of a good Providence.  Do you remember that?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Well, the same thing holds good now.  What have I done that those whom
+I have never harmed should lay themselves out to ruin my life--to render
+my days a hell and a curse to me?  For it is a curse--a lifelong curse."
+
+"Not that--not that, God grant.  Philip, be brave; you are young yet.
+Better days will dawn, dear."
+
+"But they will not bring me--you.  No, something tells me it is not so--
+it never will be so.  Nothing better will dawn for me but the grave.  I
+told you before; I tell you again.  I feel as if I had come to the end
+of my life."
+
+"Hush--hush," she said, soothingly.  "Your life is still your own; you
+are your own master.  You must make an object in life for yourself.
+That is the only remedy."
+
+But he shook his head.
+
+"No, no.  The Satanic influence is everywhere.  Was it not abroad that
+day on the river when one glimpse of you would have saved me?  Had your
+parasol been held but a few inches higher I should have seen you, and
+the sight of you would have brought me back to you, back to myself, in
+time.  Yet it was not to be."
+
+Again the bell rang, again the paddles slowed down.  The massive
+red-tiled tower of Ouchy drew nearer and nearer.  The _Mont Blanc_
+glided proudly up to the pier.
+
+"Alma, darling--my lost love--we may never meet again.  Something tells
+me we shall not.  Give me--one kiss."
+
+His hands were holding hers.  His sad eyes were full upon hers.  And she
+loved him.  What could she do?
+
+"Would it be right?" she said, hesitatingly.
+
+"Right or wrong, give it me.  You will never regret it."
+
+Her lips met his, in one sweet, warm, clinging kiss.  Then with a
+murmured, "God bless you, Philip, dear!" she had torn herself away, and
+was gone.
+
+There was the usual stir and bustle of landing.  Then as they were
+wending their way from the _debarcadere_ in the wake of their luggage,
+which an hotel porter was hauling before them on a truck, one of Alma's
+friends said--
+
+"Who was the other party to the _tete-a-tete_, Alma?  I declare your
+behaviour is positively scandalous, my dear girl.  Do you know you were
+rather more than a whole hour hobnobbing with him?  Come, who was he?"
+
+"An old friend of mine," she answered, trying to do so lightly, but of
+course failing abjectly.
+
+"Why don't you say a _dear_ friend?" said another of the girls,
+maliciously.  "Why, he was standing there on the lower deck as we
+landed, simply devouring the last of you with his eyes.  And they _were_
+eyes, too.  Come, now, his name?  You are not going to get out of that,
+don't think it.  Who was he?"
+
+"Sir Philip Orlebar."
+
+"Sir Philip Orlebar?" repeated the last who had spoken and who was by
+way of being the wag of the party.  "And you did not bring him up and
+introduce him.  A whole, real, live baronet--and such a good-looking
+one, too!  Oh, Alma, I should never have thought it of--Gracious
+goodness!"
+
+The last words were little better than a shriek.  For a frightful sound
+had drowned the speaker's utterance--a loud, vibrating, strident roar,
+and a crash as of a heavy missile tearing through planks and rafters.
+Turning towards it, the faces of the girls blanched with terror and
+their knees trembled under them, so that they could hardly stand.  Those
+around behaved variously, but all were in a state of the wildest
+consternation and dismay.
+
+"_Mais il eclate--le bateau-a-vapeur_!" cried one of the bystanders.
+
+The _Mont Blanc_ was still at the jetty.  At first it was difficult to
+make out what had happened.  Then dense masses of steam were seen to be
+issuing from the centre of the ship, and from the whole outside of the
+saloon spurted white, hissing jets.
+
+The upper deck was the scene of a wild and frenzied panic.  A mob of
+terror-stricken passengers surged to the gangway, fighting, shouting,
+swarming over each other and everything, at imminent peril of being
+precipitated into the water.  And over and above this chaos, this rout
+and tumult, there arose a succession of the most appalling screams that
+ever human ear was condemned to listen to, for they issued from the
+throats of so many human beings shut up within the death-trap below--so
+many human beings, for whom all escape was cut off, and who were being
+literally parboiled alive.
+
+This is what had happened.  The steam reservoir had exploded, and the
+mass of iron covering it had been hurled along the lower deck, sweeping
+the saloon from end to end, and crashing through the stern of the vessel
+like the projectile from a piece of ordnance.  And then an enormous
+volume of scalding steam had filled the apartment, and in a moment the
+light-hearted holiday-seekers, with which it was crowded, wrapped in
+that hell-blast from which there was no escape, were writhing in the
+throes of the most horrible, the most agonising of deaths.
+
+Alma, recovering her presence of mind, left her friends, and hurried
+back to the scene of the catastrophe.  But the gathering crowd barred
+her way; it in its turn being kept back by the arm and voice of
+Authority.  Yet she got near enough to see the outside of the wrecked
+saloon, the twisted girders supporting the upper deck, the jagged breach
+in the stern where the iron plate had gone through.  She saw the
+panic-stricken crowd swaying and surging.  She saw one scalded wretch
+rush to the side and leap overboard, in the frenzy of his intolerable
+agony.  What she did not see was him whom she sought.  She did not see
+Philip Orlebar.
+
+Not in the terrified, struggling crowd upon the upper deck did her eyes
+seek him; even at that moment she knew it was not thus he would be found
+in the hour of peril and alarm.  Her anguished gaze, straining upon the
+spot where she had last seen him, met with no reward.  He was not there.
+Oh, merciful Heavens!  Could he have gone back to his seat in the stern
+of the boat, to that spot where they had stood together talking for a
+full hour.
+
+For that spot was now enveloped in a cloud of white steam, which was
+pouring out through the hole knocked in the end of the saloon by the
+iron cover of the cistern.  Had Philip returned to his seat his back
+would have rested against that very part of the panelling which was
+blown away.
+
+It was long before the work of rescue could be begun, long before the
+fiery breath of that hell-blast had sufficiently abated its fury to
+admit of search.  Still Alma stood there, and as each agonising minute
+of suspense went by she realised more certainly that there was no hope.
+She saw body after body--in life or in death--brought away from the
+fatal ship.  She heard the heartrending groans of the sufferers, and the
+appalling yells of some tortured wretch imploring the boon of death as a
+termination to his agony.  These dreadful sights and sounds which at any
+other time would well-nigh have killed her with horror, seemed to be
+something outside her life now.  He whom she sought was not among them--
+not yet.
+
+She pressed forward.  The crowd elbowed her backward.  The voice of
+Authority warned her backward.  To Authority she appealed.
+
+Now Authority, even in a blue uniform and a sword, may still possess a
+heart, and Authority as there embodied, was young and presumably
+susceptible.  The white eager face was passingly beautiful--the piteous
+glance and appealing voice correspondingly entrancing.  Authority's
+heart melted.  In the result the crowd elbowed her backward no more.
+
+"Mademoiselle had a friend on board?  A lady?  No?  A gentleman--an
+English gentleman?  Good.  He should be sought for."
+
+Accordingly Alma learned the worst without undue delay.  There was an
+English gentleman among the injured--a tall, good-looking gentleman with
+a blonde moustache.  "He was hurt--very badly hurt," declared Authority,
+humanely mendacious, adding, "But he is not burned--oh, no--certainly he
+is not burned.  Wait.  They will disembark him in one little moment.  Is
+he dead?  Well, Mademoiselle must not give way.  He is not burned--
+certainly--not in the least burned."
+
+And the force of even that little crumb of well-meant comfort came home
+to Alma as, a few minutes later, she bent down over what had so recently
+contained the soul of Philip Orlebar, and regardless of the glances of
+three pairs of eyes or of three hundred, kissed the calm and placid
+face, so still and composed in death--kissed those lips hardly cold
+yet--the warmth of whose parting kiss in life seemed to glow upon hers--
+the sad, hopeless echo of whose parting words still seemed to linger in
+her ears.  "_Alma, darling.  My lost love.  We may never meet again.
+Something tells me we shall not_."  Well, they had not--in life.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+As the _douanier_ had said, Philip Orlebar was not burned, for he had
+met his death in the open air.  He had, as Alma had first conjectured,
+resumed his seat in the stern of the boat--was on the point of doing so
+rather, when the explosion occurred, and the iron plate, bursting
+through the end of the saloon, had struck him on the spine and shattered
+it, killing him instantaneously--painlessly.
+
+"_I feel as if I had come to the end of my life_," had been his words,
+twice used during that last sad conversation.  Poor Philip!  Had he
+uttered them in sheer bitterness of heart or under the influence of a
+strange unerring presentiment?  Verily it may have been a little of
+both.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+A DAY TOO LATE.
+
+Not less radiantly did the sun shine upon the blue lake, in whose
+pellucid surface lay mirrored the great feathery slopes of the Savoy
+Alps; not less joyously did the cheerful sights and sounds of everyday
+life run their course after the terrible catastrophe of which that
+fairest of earth's scenes had been the theatre.  Pleasure boats skimmed
+the placid waters; quarry barges, their white triangular sails hanging
+listless in the still air, were unlading their cargoes of stones brought
+thither from the Savoy shore; even a steamer swept up to the jetty, and,
+having discharged and received its human freight, went plashing on its
+way.  The world still went on; but to Alma Wyatt, wandering there alone
+by the landing-place in the glad sunshine, the golden side of life was
+clouded over for evermore.
+
+Nearly a month had gone by since poor Philip's remains had been carried
+back to the home of his fathers for burial.  His successor, the new
+baronet, a distant cousin whom he had known but slightly, had hurried to
+the scene of the disaster, and much moved by his young kinsman's most
+lamentable fate had spared no trouble and expense to ensure that every
+honour and care should surround the last lugubrious arrangements.  But
+the awful strain of that horrible experience had told upon Alma, and for
+three weeks she was so ill and prostrate that she was forbidden to leave
+her room.
+
+When, eventually, she was able to appear again, she would not leave the
+place.  With a persistency which her friends more or less strongly
+condemned as morbid--impressing upon her the thankfulness she ought to
+feel that the explosion had not taken place a few minutes earlier, while
+she herself was standing on the fatal spot--she would make her daily
+pilgrimage to the scene of the disaster, for to her it was holy ground.
+To her had been spoken the very last words he ever breathed, and they
+had been words of love.  Her lips had received the last kiss it had been
+in his power to bestow.  "You will never regret it," he had said.  And
+did she?  Not for worlds would she barter that sweet sad recollection.
+She loved him now--loved him with all her heart and soul and being.  And
+it was too late.  Too late!  She might go to him, but never more could
+he return to her.
+
+There in the noontide sunshine she stood, and, whatever way her eyes
+might turn, the whole scene around her brought back his memory.  She
+could see the little white village of St. Gingolph sleeping beneath the
+great mountains on the opposite shore; and it brought back that day,
+when tossing on the furious billows of that sudden tempest, they had
+reckoned their hours as numbered--and there were times when in the
+bitterness of her soul she could find it in her heart to wish they had
+died together then.  Again, there rose the green serrated ridges of the
+Chaine des Verreaux, beneath whose shadow she had received his first
+declaration of love.  She could see the distant _arete_ of the
+Cape-au-Moine heaved up against the blue sky, could mark the exact spot
+where they had cowered for shelter when exposed to the wild fury of the
+blast, up there on those dangerous heights, now so green and smiling in
+the sunlight, and she could see him in the sweet golden evening of that
+eventful day, so appealing, so winning in his brave young beauty, as he
+poured out his love at her feet.  Then she hardly knew her own heart.
+Now she knew it.  But--too late.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Wyatt?"
+
+She started violently.  That familiar voice even, fitted with the
+picture she had been drawing.  Turning she encountered the dark,
+piercing eyes of Fordham.
+
+He had raised his hat, but he did not offer his hand.  He stood there
+contemplating her with grave, saturnine expression as of old.
+
+"Wretched business this," he said, with a jerk of the head in the
+direction of the spot where the catastrophe had taken place.  "Poor
+fellow, poor fellow!  Well, I suppose even I can hardly be held so much
+as indirectly responsible for it."
+
+"I hardly know whether I am speaking to his friend or his enemy," said
+Alma, who, while instinctively distrusting this strange being, yet was
+conscious of being in some degree held spell-bound, even as the historic
+wedding-guest, together with an unaccountable anxiety to hear what he
+had to say.
+
+"Both, I suppose," answered Fordham, impassively.  "Formerly that is to
+say.  Now only the first.  You have heard of such a thing as a vendetta,
+I suppose, Miss Wyatt?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, I come of the race among which that institution is pre-eminently
+supposed to flourish.  Philip's father injured me, and I foredoomed the
+son from his cradle to be the means of avenging that injury upon the
+father.  And when the time came--he did so."
+
+"And you are such a monster as to come here and gloat over it!" said
+Alma, recoiling from him in a perfect horror of repulsion.  But the
+other was unmoved.  A wintry ghost of a smile drooped the corners of his
+mouth.  He looked at her for a moment and went on.
+
+"By no means.  I saved his life more than once--and twice after that I
+_gave_ him his life."
+
+"Gave him his life?"
+
+"Yes.  Are you aware that he challenged me, and I met him?"
+
+"I had heard of it."
+
+"Well, we exchanged shots twice; rather, I let him have two shots at me,
+while I--blazed away at the heavens.  He could have had a dozen if he
+wished, but the seconds did not.  I am a dead shot, and I was not going
+to fire at him.  Now, am I such a monster?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Well, his bullet hit me, and I shall never walk straight again.  It hit
+me--exactly where I wounded his father when Philip himself was hardly
+out of his cradle.  But I bore him not the slightest grudge for that--
+nor do I.  My vendetta was accomplished.  It had to be done, and it was
+done.  Yet several times I wavered.  The chances were even that I would
+spare him, for I had grown fond of the boy.  And, Miss Wyatt, yours is
+the hand that turned the scale against him."
+
+"Mine?  What _do_ you mean?"
+
+"Yours.  I mean just that.  You were in such a hurry to send him to the
+right-about, to condemn him unheard, that you threw him back into my
+power again.  My power against him could not have stood against yours--
+but you threw yours away.  Afterwards it was too late."
+
+Oh the anguish of her heart as she listened!  This man was reiterating
+word for word what Philip himself had said.  Why had she been in such a
+hurry to condemn him unheard?  Well, her whole life now was destined to
+be an expiation of that one act of hard and merciless pride.  Fordham,
+who had been watching her keenly, with a feeling, half grim, half
+sorrowful at his heart, continued:
+
+"That marriage of his was brought about solely by me.  You may or may
+not have guessed that, yourself apart, there was every reason why that
+particular alliance could have been nothing but absolutely disastrous to
+him.  Well, into the particulars I need not go--especially for your
+enlightenment.  Suffice it to say that the measure was brought about for
+the purposes of my lifelong feud, of which it was the crowning act.  And
+now his wife is dead."
+
+Every vestige of colour forsook Alma's cheeks.  What infinite
+possibilities might not the future have opened out?
+
+"Dead?" she echoed.  "How?  When?"
+
+"Yes--dead.  She died suddenly--_the day before_ poor Philip's own end.
+But it was a day too late.  Had it occurred a day earlier he would have
+heard of it, and would not have been in the _Mont Blanc_ blow-up."
+
+"Was she--was she--fond of him?" gasped Alma.
+
+"Passionately, I am told; and that was a factor in the carrying out of
+my vendetta."  And then, backing against the iron railing of the jetty
+to rest his lame leg, Fordham continued deliberately, "So you see, if he
+had landed here at Ouchy, when you did, instead of deciding to go on
+further, Philip would now be a free man as well as a living one.  But
+that is the way of the world--our blessings, when they come to us,
+invariably do so a day too late."
+
+Fordham was right.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORDHAM'S FEUD ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36593.txt or 36593.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/9/36593/
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.