Part 9 (2/2)
”Very,” replied Emma.
”Disgusting!” exclaimed Lewis, who rode at the side of the carriage next his cousin.
”It might be worse,” said Lawrence, with a grim smile.
”Impossible,” retorted Lewis.
”Come, Captain, have you no remark to make by way of inspiring a little hope?” asked Mrs Stoutley.
”Why, never havin' cruised in this region before,” answered the Captain, ”my remarks can't be of much value. Hows'ever, there _is_ one idea that may be said to afford consolation, namely, that this sort o' thing can't last. I've sailed pretty nigh in all parts of the globe, an' I've invariably found that bad weather has its limits--that after rain we may look for suns.h.i.+ne, and after storm, calm.”
”How cheering!” said Lewis, as the rain trickled from the point of his prominent nose.
At that moment Gillie White, happening to cast his eyes upward, beheld a vision which drew from him an exclamation of wild surprise.
They all looked quickly in the same direction, and there, through a rent in the watery veil, they beheld a little spot of blue sky, rising into which was a mountain-top so pure, so faint so high and inexpressibly far off, yet so brilliant in a glow of suns.h.i.+ne, that it seemed as if heaven had been opened, and one of the hills of Paradise revealed. It was the first near view that the travellers had obtained of these mountains of everlasting ice. With the exception of the exclamations ”Wonderful!”
”Most glorious!” they found no words for a time to express their feelings, and seemed glad to escape the necessity of doing so by listening to the remarks of their driver, as he went into an elaborate explanation of the name and locality of the particular part of Mont Blanc that had been thus disclosed.
The rent in the mist closed almost as quickly as it had opened, utterly concealing the beautiful vision; but the impression it had made, being a first and a very deep one, could never more be removed. The travellers lived now in the faith of what they had seen. Scepticism was no longer possible, and in this improved frame of mind they dashed into the village of Chamouni--one of the haunts of those whose war-cry is ”Excelsior!”--and drove to the best hotel.
Their arrival in the village was an unexpected point of interest to many would-be mountaineers, who lounged about the place with macintoshes and umbrellas, growling at the weather. Any event out of the common forms a subject of interest to men who wait and have nothing to do. As the party pa.s.sed them, growlers gazed and speculated as to who the new-comers might be. Some thought Miss Gray pretty; some thought otherwise--to agree on any point on such a day being, of course, impossible. Others ”guessed” that the young fellows must be uncommonly fond of riding to ”get on the outside of a horse” in such weather; some remarked that the ”elderly female” seemed ”used up,” or ”_blasee_,” and all agreed--yes, they _did_ agree on this point--that the thing in blue tights and b.u.t.tons beside the driver was the most impudent-looking monkey the world had ever produced!
The natives of the place also had their opinions, and expressed them to each other; especially the bronzed, stalwart sedate-looking men who hung about in knots near the centre of the village, and seemed to estimate the probability of the stout young Englishmen on horseback being likely to require their services often--for these, said the driver, were the celebrated guides of Chamouni; men of bone and muscle, and endurance and courage; the leaders of those daring spirits who consider--and justly so--the ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc, or Monte Rosa, or the Matterhorn, a feat; the men who perform this feat it may be, two or three times a week--as often as you choose to call them to it, in fact-- and think nothing of it; the men whose profession it is to risk their lives every summer from day to day for a few francs; who have become so inured to danger that they have grown quite familiar with it, insomuch that some of the reckless blades among them treat it now and then with contempt, and pay the penalty of such conduct with their lives.
Sinking into a couch in her private sitting-room, Mrs Stoutley resigned herself to Susan's care, and, while she was having her boots taken off, said with a sigh:--
”Well, here we are at last. What do you think of Chamouni, Susan?”
”Rather a wet place, ma'am; ain't it?”
With a languid smile, Mrs Stoutley admitted that it was, but added, by way of encouragement that it was not always so. To which Susan replied that she was glad to hear it, so she was, as nothink depressed her spirits so much as wet and clouds, and gloom.
Susan was a pretty girl of sixteen, tall, as well as very sedate and womanly, for her age. Having been born in one of the midland counties, of poor, though remarkably honest, parents, who had received no education themselves, and therefore held it to be quite unnecessary to bestow anything so useless on their daughter, she was, until very recently, as ignorant of all beyond the circle of her father's homestead as the daughter of the man in the moon--supposing no compulsory education-act to be in operation in the orb of night. Having pa.s.sed through them, she now knew of the existence of France and Switzerland, but she was quite in the dark as to the position of these two countries with respect to the rest of the world, and would probably have regarded them as one and the same if their boundary-line had not been somewhat deeply impressed upon her by the ungallant manner in which the Customs officials examined the contents of her modest little portmanteau in search, as Gillie gave her to understand, of tobacco.
Mrs Stoutley had particularly small feet, a circ.u.mstance which might have induced her, more than other ladies, to wear easy boots; but owing to some unaccountable perversity of mental const.i.tution, she deemed this a good reason for having her boots made unusually tight. The removal of these, therefore, afforded great relief, and the administration of a cup of tea produced a cheering reaction of spirits, under the influence of which she partially forgot herself, and resolved to devote a few minutes to the instruction of her interestingly ignorant maid.
”Yes,” she said, arranging herself comfortably, and sipping her tea, while Susan busied herself putting away her lady's ”things,” and otherwise tidying the room, ”it does not always rain here; there is a little suns.h.i.+ne sometimes. By the way, where is Miss Gray?”
”In the bedroom, ma'am, unpacking the trunks.”
”Ah, well, as I was saying, they have a little suns.h.i.+ne sometimes, for you know, Susan, people _must_ live, and gra.s.s or grain cannot grow without suns.h.i.+ne, so it has been arranged that there should be enough here for these purposes, but no more than enough, because Switzerland has to maintain its character as one of the great refrigerators of Europe.”
”One of the what, ma'am?”
”Refrigerators,” explained Mrs Stoutley; ”a refrigerator, Susan, is a freezer; and it is the special mission of Switzerland to freeze nearly all the water that falls on its mountains, and retain it there in the form of ice and snow until it is wanted for the use of man. Isn't that a grand idea?”
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