one on the plank. It was a young lady. I stood up and gazed. She
was perhaps a hundred yards away from me; but I could distinctly make
out her swaying, girlish figure, her deer-stalker cap, and the ends of
her boa (as, I think, those long, furry things are called) floating in
the wind. In a moment she was safe on the other side; but on the middle
of the plank she had turned to kiss her hand to some of her more timid
friends, and it was then that I fell in love with her. No doubt it was
the very place for romance, if one was sufficiently clad; but I am not
'susceptible,' as it is called, and I had never loved before. On the
other hand, I was always a firm believer in love at first sight, which,
as you will see immediately, is at the very root of my present
sufferings.

"The other tourists, their fears allayed, now crossed the plank, but I
hurried away anywhere; and found myself an hour afterward on a hillside,
surrounded by tinkling cows. All that time I had been thinking of a
plank with a girl on it. I returned hastily to the inn, to hear that
the heroine of the bridge and her friends had already driven off up the
pass. My intention had been to stay at Franzenshohe over night, but of
course I at once followed the line of carriages which could be seen
crawling up the winding road. It was no difficult matter to overtake
them, and in half an hour I was within a few yards of the hindmost
carriage. It contained her of whom I was in pursuit. Her back was
toward me, but I recognized the cap and the boa. I confess that I was
nervous about her face, which I had not yet seen. So often had I been
disappointed in ladies when they showed their faces, that I muttered
Jimmy's aphorism to myself: 'The saddest thing in life is that most
women look best from the back.' But when she looked round all anxiety
was dispelled. So far as your advice is concerned, it cannot matter
to you what she was like. Briefly, she was charming.

"I am naturally shy, and so had more difficulty in making her
acquaintance than many travellers would have had. It was at the baths of
Bormio that we came together. I had bribed a waiter to seat me next her
father at dinner; but, when the time came, I could say nothing to him,
so anxious was I to create a favorable impression. In the evening,
however, I found the family gathered round a pole, with skittles at the
foot of it. They were wondering how Italian skittles was played, and,
though I had no idea, I voluntee