with renewed vigor, as if a good
idea had just occurred to him, it hardly seemed as if he cared very much
whether he was going to be ill or not. He got as far as the Mortratsch
Glacier before he stopped.

He couldn't get any farther because when he got into the inn for lunch,
something or other happened to him. A fool of a porter had the
impertinence to tell him afterward that he had fainted. Winn knocked the
porter down for daring to make such a suggestion; but feeling remarkably
queer despite this relaxation, he decided to drive back to the Kulm.

He wound up the day with bridge and a prolonged wrangle with Miss Marley
on the subject of the Liberal Government.

Miss Marley lent herself to the fray and became extremely heated. Winn
had her rather badly once or twice, and as he never subsequently heard
her argue on the same subject with others, he was spared the knowledge
that she shared his political views precisely, and had tenderly provided
him with the flaws in her opponent's case.

When he went to bed he began a letter to Claire. He told her that he had
had a jolly walk, a good game of bridge, and that he thought he'd
succeeded in knocking some radical nonsense out of Miss Marley's head.
Then he inclosed his favorite snap-shot of Peter, the one that he kept
with his revolver, and said he would get taken properly with him when he
went back to England.

Winn stopped for a long time after that, staring straight in front of
him; then he wrote:

"I hope you'll never be sorry for having come across me, because you've
given me everything I ever wanted. I hope you'll not mind my having been
rather rough the other night. I didn't mean anything by it. I wouldn't
hurt a hair of your head; but I think you know that I wouldn't, only I
thought I'd just mention it. Please be careful about the damp when you
get back to England."

He stopped for half an hour when he had got as far as "England," and as
the heating was off, the room grew very cold; then he wrote, "I didn't
know men loved women like this."

After that he decided to finish the letter in the morning; but when the
morning came he crossed the last sentence out because he thought it
might upset her.

CHAPTER XXVIII

He had been afraid that Davos would be beautiful, but the thaw had
successfully dissipated its immaculate loveliness. Half of the snow
slopes were already bare, the roads were a sea of mud, and the valley
was as dingy as if a careless wash