e piles of stones which mark the
spots where tourists have sunk down bewildered in the mist and died of
exhaustion and cold. These little mounds help to give Mount Washington
its savage and implacable character. It is not subdued by all the roads
and rails and scientific forces. For days it may lie basking and smiling
in the sun, but at any hour it is liable to become inhospitable and
pitiless, and for a good part of the year the summit is the area of
elemental passion.

How delightful it was to saunter down the winding road into a region
of peace and calm; to see from the safe highway the great giants in all
their majesty; to come to vegetation, to the company of familiar trees,
and the haunts of men! As they reached the Glen House all the line
of rugged mountain-peaks was violet in the reflected rays. There were
people on the porch who were looking at this spectacle. Among them the
eager eyes of King recognized Irene.

"Yes, there she is," cried Mrs. Farquhar; "and there--oh, what a
treacherous North----is Mr. Meigs also."

It was true. There was Mr. Meigs, apparently domiciled with the Benson
family. There might have been a scene, but fortunately the porch was
full of loungers looking at the sunset, and other pedestrians in couples
and groups were returning from afternoon strolls. It might be the
crisis of two lives, but to the spectator nothing more was seen than the
everyday meeting of friends and acquaintances. A couple say good-night
at the door of a drawing-room. Nothing has happened--nothing except a
look, nothing except the want of pressure of the hand. The man lounges
off to the smoking-room, cool and indifferent; the woman, in her
chamber, falls into a passion of tears, and at the end of a wakeful
night comes into a new world, hard and cold and uninteresting. Or the
reverse happens. It is the girl who tosses the thing off with a smile,
perhaps with a sigh, as the incident of a season, while the man, wounded
and bitter, loses a degree of respect for woman, and pitches his life
henceforth on a lower plane.

In the space of ten steps King passed through an age of emotions,
but the strongest one steadied him. There was a general movement,
exclamations, greetings, introductions. King was detained a moment by
Mr. and Mrs. Benson; he even shook hands with Mr. Meigs, who had the
tact to turn immediately from the group and talk with somebody else;
while Mrs. Farquhar and Miss Lamont and Mrs. Cortlandt precipitate