y running. Why had he stayed so long up there? She would
be back--she would expect to see him; and that young beast of a violinist
would be with her, perhaps, instead! He reached the hotel just in time
to rush up and dress, and rush down to dinner. Ah! They were tired, no
doubt--were resting in their rooms. He sat through dinner as best he
could; got away before dessert, and flew upstairs. For a minute he stood
there doubtful; on which door should he knock? Then timidly he tapped on
hers. No answer! He knocked loud on his tutor's door. No answer! They
were not back, then. Not back? What could that mean? Or could it be
that they were both asleep? Once more he knocked on her door; then
desperately turned the handle, and took a flying glance. Empty, tidy,
untouched! Not back! He turned and ran downstairs again. All the guests
were streaming out from dinner, and he became entangled with a group of
'English Grundys' discussing a climbing accident which had occurred in
Switzerland. He listened, feeling suddenly quite sick. One of them, the
short grey-bearded Grundy with the rather whispering voice, said to him:
"All alone again to-night? The Stormers not back?" Lennan did his best
to answer, but something had closed his throat; he could only shake his
head.

"They had a guide, I think?" said the 'English Grundy.'

This time Lennan managed to get out: "Yes, sir."

"Stormer, I fancy, is quite an expert!" and turning to the lady whom the
young 'Grundys' addressed as 'Madre' he added:

"To me the great charm of mountain-climbing was always the freedom from
people--the remoteness."

The mother of the young 'Grundys,' looking at Lennan with her half-closed
eyes, answered:

"That, to me, would be the disadvantage; I always like to be mixing with
my own kind."

The grey-bearded 'Grundy' murmured in a muffled voice:

"Dangerous thing, that, to say--in an hotel!"

And they went on talking, but of what Lennan no longer knew, lost in this
sudden feeling of sick fear. In the presence of these 'English Grundys,'
so superior to all vulgar sensations, he could not give vent to his
alarm; already they viewed him as unsound for having fainted. Then he
grasped that there had begun all round him a sort of luxurious
speculation on what might have happened to the Stormers. The descent was
very nasty; there was a particularly bad traverse. The 'Grundy,' whose
collar was not now crumpled, said he did not believe i