Oh, those gorges, in whose depths the pent-up
waters leap onward between high walls of rock to which the precarious
gangway clings where you stand in momentary fear of disaster! Oh,
those woods, with the steep and stony footpaths, and the sudden
revelation of unsuspected objects: of kine munching the green herbage;
of the women who tend them, working industriously with wool and needle;
of wooden _chalets_ with stone-protected roofs; of trickling cascades
and roaring waterfalls!

Oh, those pastures, green as emerald, soft as velvet, where one might
lie as on a couch of down and feast the eye on mountain and vale and
sky, and never tire! Oh, those sunsets, and particularly the one which
struck my imagination most, when the sky was not crimson, but
topaz-tinted, and the huge cloud which hung suspended from the neck of
the Matterhorn was changed in a second into beaten gold, as though
touched by the rod of the alchemist; when the Breithorn flushed deep
for a moment at the sun's caress, and the land lay flooded in a
translucent yellow haze that spread like a vapour over the works of God
and man, and turned mere stones and mortar into the fairy palaces of
Eastern fable!

It seems now like a wonderful dream, but, thank God! it is something
much less transient. For a memory is infinitely better than a dream:
the memory of an experience such as this is a continual feast, whereas
a dream too often excites hopes that may never be realised, and
presents visions of delight which are as elusive as the grapes of
Tantalus.

I stored up every detail for the squire's benefit. I cultivated my
powers of observation more for his sake than my own, and reaped a
double reward. All I saw is impressed still upon my brain with
photographic sharpness, and it will be a long, long time before the
image becomes faded or blurred. But what was better still, I saw the
squire's eyes brighten and the "yonderly" look depart, as he came back
to earth evening by evening and followed the story of my adventures.

I believe he would have been content to stay on indefinitely and give
me as good a time as my heart could have desired, but that would not
have been right. I had not gone out to enjoy a frolic, and at times I
felt almost ashamed of myself for enjoying life so much. "Grace
Holden," I said, "you are a very considerable fraud. Your special role
just now is supposed to be that of the ministering angel, whereas you
are flinging away your own