Within sight of that tiny human settlement, her companion making bustling preparations for luncheon, the spell was broken. His unwonted gravity of a little time before had departed, and she thought his voice was louder, his grin readier, than ever. As they sat and munched side by side, Giovanna determined within herself to win that look of reverence back to his round face, and this time she would know better than to let it pass. The sky was clear with that glory of blueness that gives out a joy from itself; from the woods that cloaked the foot of the opposite mountain a hawk swung upward into mid air and hung, a dark spot in the blaze of sunshine and dazzle of the snows, high above the village, far below the pair on their lofty rock. "That is the first sign of life we have seen, since we lost sight of Adlersdorf," cried Giovanna. 66 The one moving spot in all the severe landscape had quickly caught the attention of both, and there was no need to point it out. I think those châlets can only be summer cattlehuts-there does not seem to be a living creature, man or beast, anywhere near them." may be packed full of "The Swiss never come "It is quite likely every hut people," returned the young man. out in winter. Let's see if we can waken anyone down there." He swallowed a crust with a gulp, laid down his packet of chocolate on one side of him, and his flask of wine on the other, placed both hands trumpet-wise before his mouth, leaned forward and proceeded to emit what Giovanna thought to be the loudest and most uncouth sounds to which she had ever listened. She did not know that even in the Tyrol there were few who could beat Graaf Andreas in the art of yodelling. She stared aghast as the howlings rose louder and wilder; she had not thought it possible that such a volume of sound could proceed from one human being. The very mountains seemed to start at the indignity offered to their peace, and to answer the din angrily, as it rang high and low making strange echoes, here thunderous, there faint, dying away in eddies of disquiet through those far spaces of stillness. The young man was enjoying himself mightily; why had he not thought before of displaying this talent to Donna Giovanna? With inflated cheeks growing redder every second he yodelled on; the girl longed to stop her ears but she was aware that he was well pleased with himself, and feared to offend him. Presently he detached one hand from his mouth to point downwards. One or two moving specks had appeared among the little châlets below them, like the first ants that show themselves when their nest is disturbed, to be quickly followed by many more. The population of the village had indeed been packed away within doors and now came swarming forth: the specks ranged themselves in groups and rows. Andreas paused at last to breathe and listen. A chorus of yodels ought to reach them from the valley if mountaineers worthy of the name dwelt there. But the last echo of his own efforts died away and no answer however faint rose up; the villagers were waving their arms and pointing. They seem to be an unsociable lot," remarked Andreas, standing up and waving his pole in the air by way of exchanging greeting with the mute little crowd. "I will sing them a song they must know to cheer them up." He recommenced his melodious yells, this time keeping within the bounds of a simple tune which did not however forbid his voice to range to the utmost limits of its possibilities. But as he yodelled, his eyes suddenly fell on the posts of a stockade protruding from the snow immediately above the village. He had not noticed it before, although it was trebly strong and extended to a considerable height towards him in interrupted rows of stakes planted at various angles and showing black in the universal whiteness. glanced at it for a moment before its presence connected itself in his mind with the villagers' gestures: then he abruptly ceased his song in the very midst of a note full-toned as a bull's, and turned quickly to stare over his shoulder. He "What is interrupting your music?" Giovanna asked, trying to keep relief out of her voice. But Andreas answered as though he were speaking to himself. "I shouldn't have done it," he muttered. "I shouldn't have made a noise at this time of year-and such a hot sun." The girl stared at him uncomprehendingly, and perceiving that he was still looking over his shoulder, she too turned her head. Was it a fleeting optic delusion that made her think the mountain towering sheer above them moved? She stared with dilated eyes, and the silence was broken by a sound, deep, wide, sullen; it was as though some outraged spirit of the mountains sighed. If it was indescribably terrifying to the girl, it was more so to her companion who knew what it meant. "Oh, what is it?" cried Giovanna rising to her feet. "Hush," said Andreas in a whisper, gripping her wrist as he spoke. "Don't move, above all, don't scream." Giovanna saw him turn slowly white and the beads of perspiration gather on his forehead; then she looked up again. The mountain-crest was moving, bending towards her; she was sure of it this time. She gazed petrified; an enormous mass of snow, a whole field was slowly slipping; an avalanche was coming upon them-now at last she understood. But again the threatened danger was arrested, and once more she would have thought it had existed only in her fancy were it not for the recollection of that awe-inspiring sound. "Let's get away," she whispered. Andreas stood up without replying, seized his knapsack and cape, and made her a sign to go before him. Giovanna did not wait to be told twice. She started as violently at the first swish of the ski as if it had been the commencement of the avalanche's proverbial roar, but when she found herself sweeping steadily on and death did not overtake her, she took courage. "We're going much faster than the avalanche," she said over her shoulder. "I think we're out of its way now," he answered, "but don't let's stop until we come to where we halted before." When they paused the white map of their surroundings had changed in outline with the abrupt completeness to which mountain-dwellers are accustomed in their daily comings and goings. They were back in their remote snow-fields of desolation and stillness, and felt at home in them, safe in their smooth and apparently measureless expanses, glad to be far from that rough steep, with the yawning valley below them and the craggy mountain-brow above. Was there really danger?" was Giovanna's first question as she drew a long breath, and looked anxiously behind her. "I don't think there was," he answered, laughing with his accustomed readiness, whether there were question of a joke or not. "I think that a ridge that we couldn't see stopped it, and anyhow the snow was not inclined to give, but "Look!" interrupted Giovanna, still gazing in the direction whence they had come. Along the mountain shoulder that bounded their view on that side the smooth line of snow glittering against the blue sky, was breaking up, splitting in great cracks, rising into mysterious heaps as though, beyond the ridge, some invisible giant's hand were toying with it. "It's going on down," commented Andreas, "but very slowly, it won't get near the village at that pace; there are too many rocks and hollows to check it on the way." "It would have reached us if we had sat on there," Giovanna remarked. "Yet you did not seem to think of running away until I suggested it. Is that your idea of bravery ?" "But not at all," cried Andreas. "I was paralysed. I thought it was coming with a rush. You see I have seen more avalanches than you have." "I have never seen one before," Giovanna told him. I have never been up to the snow till this year.' The avalanche was already losing importance in her mind by comparison with much in it that was more interesting, but it was not so with the young Dutchman. "In future I will never yodel any more when I escort ladies into the mountains," was his doughty resolution, for which Giovanna inwardly breathed an aspiration of thankfulness. Your Aunt did not even know where you were," he added irrelevantly. 66 He felt it was not fair that the person who represented in herself all Donna Giovanna's family ties, should be kept in ignorance of her daily expeditions, but doubted not that the girl had good reason for her secrecy. Giovanna however was at that moment picturing herself carried home to her Aunt seriously injured, and fancying the terror and despair into which her poor relative would be thrown if one fine day she did not come home at all, and she resolved that in the event of either of these tragic occurrences taking place in the future her Aunt should not be without a revealing clue. "I will tell her about my ski-ing to-night," she said. Her voice was toneless, she felt suddenly dispirited. She had never expected in real life to make friends with a young man, still less nearly to have an adventure in his company; how strange was the discovery that existence still seemed flat after these two events had come to pass! 66 "You're tired," Andreas said. Let's hurry home and have some hot tea." Thenceforth their way was steeper, and they flew downward. Exhilaration kindled in Giovanna again and hilarity in her comrade, so that when they parted on the highroad, she to walk back to her hotel, he to betake himself to the shop where he hired her ski, dragging them behind him by a string, it was on the same terms of good-fellowship in which they had bidden each other good-night every evening for the past three weeks. But in her heart was a sense of acknowledged disappointment, in his a vision of her as the cold snow-queen. (To be continued.) THE TWO GLADSTONES (1809-1898. 1885-1915.) The grandsire guided deft the Ship of State VOL. XLIII.-No. 504. JOHN J. HAYDEN, LL.D. 27 |