ttempts at their own tails; dogs bounded and danced, chiefly on their
hind legs, round their loved companion man (including woman); juvenile
dogs chased, tumbled over, barked at, and gnawed each other with amiable
fury, wagging their various tails with a vigour that suggested a desire
to shake them off; tourist men and boys moved about with a decision that
indicated the having of particular business on hand; tourist women and
girls were busily engaged with baskets and botanical boxes, or flitted
hither and thither in climbing costume with obtrusive alpenstocks, as
though a general attack on Mont Blanc and all his satellite aiguilles
were meditated.

Among these were our friends the Professor, Captain Wopper, Emma Gray,
Slingsby, Lewis, and Lawrence, under the guidance of Antoine Grennon.

Strange to say they were all a little dull, notwithstanding the beauty
of the weather, and the pleasant anticipation of a day on the hills--not
a hard, toilsome day, with some awful Alpine summit as its aim, but what
Lewis termed a jolly day, a picnicky day, to be extended into night, and
to include any place, or to be cut short or extended according to whim.

The Professor was dull, because, having to leave, this was to be his
last excursion; Captain Wopper was dull, because his cherished
matrimonial hopes were being gradually dissipated. He could not
perceive that Lawrence was falling in love with Emma, or Emma with
Lawrence. The utmost exertion of sly diplomacy of which he was capable,
short of straightforward advice, had failed to accomplish anything
towards the desirable end. Emma was dull, because her friend Nita,
although recovering, was still far from well. Slingsby was dull for the
same reason, and also because he felt his passion to be hopeless. Lewis
was dull because he knew Nita's circumstances to be so very sad; and
Lawrence was dull because--well, we are not quite sure why _he_ was
dull. He was rather a self-contained fellow, and couldn't be easily
understood. Of the whole party, Antoine alone was _not_ dull. Nothing
could put him in that condition, but, seeing that the others were so, he
was grave, quiet attentive.

Some of the excursionists had left at a much earlier hour. Four
strapping youths, with guides, had set out for the summit of Mont Blanc;
a mingled party of ladies, gentlemen, guides, and mules, were on the
point of starting to visit the Mer de Glace; a delicate student, unable
for long excursions,