om the road which had led me to the Grand St. Bernard, we took
the way on the right, almost at once feeling the rise of the hill.
Steeper and steeper it grew, and warmer and warmer we, though the day
was young. Often we were glad of the excuse the view gave us to stop
and look back, down into the wide bowl of the Rhone Valley, with a
heat-haze of quivering blue, creating an effect of great distance,
like a "gauze drop" on the stage.

Surely this was the longest lull on earth, and when we reached the
top--if we ever did--we should find that we had been climbing Jack's
Beanstalk, coming out into a different world! Up and up we dragged for
hours, the Boy determined not to take to donkey-back, despite the
protestations of Innocentina, emphatic, but slightly modified by
constant association with the man she was engaged in converting.

Sometimes we were ministered to by small maidens, with marvellously
neat, sleek hair, who sprang up under our eyes, apparently from
rabbit-holes, their arms hooked into the handles of big fruit baskets
which might easily have been their bathtubs or cradles. If we seemed
inclined to turn away with an expressionless gaze, the little
creatures forged after us with a determined trot, laid back with tiny
brown hands the dainty white napkin hiding the basket's contents, and
tempted us with purple plums or mellow pears. In the end, we
invariably succumbed to these wiles, even when we had sickened at the
thought of fruit, and were obliged surreptitiously to hide our
purchases by the wayside, when the sturdy young vendors' backs were
turned.

We carried our panamas in our hands, and the Boy's short chestnut
curls clung to his forehead in damp rings, making him look absurdly
childish. I wondered at myself for discussing with eager interest, as
I often did, so many of life's unanswerable questions with such a slip
of boyhood. Still, I knew that I should often do it again, while we
remained together, and that he would know how to measure wits with
mine, to my disadvantage, compelling always my respect for his
opinions, unless he happened to be in an inconsequential or impish
mood.

After a long climb, we called a halt at the most attractive of several
little wayside chalets we had passed. Each was thoughtfully provided
with an awning or wooden roof stretching across the road to give shade
to travellers, who were lured to pause by bottles of bright-coloured
syrups, wine, and beer displayed on flower-de