ted up the steep incline I rejoiced to
realise that it could not travel more quickly. Stream, mountain and
forest; fertile valley, rushing waterfall and lofty precipice--all
contributed to the charm of the experience. But the rush of the Visp,
as it poured down the narrow gorge, and boiled and fretted in turbulent
cascades which hurled their spray through the windows of the passing
train is the one outstanding remembrance. It was glorious! Then the
Matterhorn came in sight for a moment, and just afterwards the toy
train drew up at the toy platform in Zermatt.

The concierge of the Hotel Victoria took my bag and pointed me out to a
diminutive young lady who was standing near. She at once came forward
and held out her hand, whilst a winning smile spread over her pleasant
face.

"You are Miss Holden, are you not? I have stepped across to meet you,
so that you might not feel so strange on your arrival. My husband is a
doctor--Dr. Grey--and he has taken an interest in Mr. Evans, and
continues to do so even though I have fallen in love with the old
gentleman."

I liked the girl straight away. She is quite young--only just
twenty-three, as she told me frankly, and ever such a little creature,
though she carries herself with the dignity of a duchess--in fact, with
much more dignity than some duchesses I have seen.

"Now that is 'real good' of you, as the Americans whose company I have
just left would say," I replied; "and I think it was very nice of you
to think of it. Tell me first, please, if Mr. Evans is worse."

"I really cannot say with certainty," she replied; "the Zermatt doctor
thinks he is not going to recover, and my husband says that he will
live for months. Now my husband, dear, is a _very clever man indeed_,
though he is only young; and although the other man looks very
formidable and wears spectacles I don't believe he is as clever as
Ralph."

I smiled. "You have known the one doctor longer than the other," I
said.

"Not much, as a doctor," she confided. "To let you into a secret which
nobody here has discovered, Ralph and I are on our honeymoon, so that
my experience of his medical abilities is limited, but I am sure he is
very clever. But come! the hotel is only just across the way."

She accompanied me to my room and chatted incessantly whilst I was
endeavouring to remove the grime and grit which the continental engines
deposit so generously upon the traveller behind them.

"There!" she