cers, and condemned to be shot; and he only asks his brother
soldiers to fire straight---- But I am not going to spoil it.'

She put her hand up furtively for a second to her eyes, and then she
said cheerfully--

'I have had enough walking. Suppose we wait for the carriage?'

'I think I ought to apologise to you, Miss Anne,' said he. 'You prefer
walking by yourself--I ought not to have come and bothered you.'

'It is of no consequence,' said Nan, looking back for the carriage, 'so
long as you haven't wet your feet.'

They got into the carriage and continued on their way; and very soon it
became apparent, from the flashes of sunlight and gleams of blue, that
they had worked their way up through the cloud-layers. In process of
time, indeed, they got clear of the mists altogether, and emerged on to
the higher valleys of the Alps--vast, sterile, the white snow-plains
glittering in the sun, except where the rocks showed through in points
of intense black. There were no longer any pines. They were in a
world of snow and barren rocks and brilliant sunlight, with a cold
luminous blue sky overhead; themselves the only living creatures
visible; their voices sounding strangely distinct in the silence.

When they were quite at the summit of the pass, a smurr, as we say in
Scotland, came over; but it did not last. By the time they had got the
drags on the wheels, the vast gorge before them--descending and winding
until it disappeared in a wall of mountains of the deepest blue--was
again filled with sunlight; and now they began to be a little bit
sheltered from the wind as the horses trotted and splashed through the
wet snow, carrying them away down into Italy.

They lunched at Campo Dolcino, still some thousands of feet above the
level of the sea. Then on again, swinging away at a rapid pace down
into a mighty valley; rattling through galleries cut in the solid rock;
then out again into the grateful sunlight; taking the sharp curves of
the road at the same breakneck speed; with always below them--and so
far below them that it was silent--a rushing river sweeping down
between fair pastures and dots of villages. As the evening fell, this
clatter of hoofs and wheels came to a sudden end; for they were
entering the town of Chiavenna, and there you must go at walking pace
through the narrow little thoroughfares. It was strange for them to
come down from the snow-world into this ordinary little town, and to
find in the ho