g person had
found it, and read my diary, which was to be used--partly--as notes
for a book--if I should ever write it. I would have offered even a
bigger reward, if you had let me. But I must go on:--they will
come--Molly and Jack. I went out to Lucerne, where Innocentina joined
me with the donkeys; but it wasn't till we were away in the wilds
that--that the Boy appeared. I didn't mean to visit any very big towns
afterwards, for it wasn't civilisation I wanted; but--you came into
the story, and I did lots of things I hadn't meant to do--because of
you, Man."

"And I did lots of things I hadn't meant to do--because of you, Boy."

"It was doing different things from what I planned that worked all the
mischief. If we hadn't gone to Aix, we wouldn't have gone up Mont
Revard; and if we hadn't gone up Mont Revard, the Prince wouldn't have
had to vanish."

"If he hadn't, would the Princess have appeared--for me? Or would she
always have been passing--passing--I not dreaming of her presence,
though she was by my side?"

"Who can tell? Each event in life seems to be propped up against all
the others, like a tower of children's bricks. Anyway, we did go, and
Something had sent up to the snowy top of that mountain in Savoie the
very last man in the world--except one--I would have chosen to meet.
It was--_his_ brother--the younger brother of the man I had found out.
He wasn't sure of me, I could tell: for he had never seen me with my
hair short; and I had got so thin, and my face so brown; but he
suspected, and he is a gossiping sort of fellow. If he had had a
chance to see me by daylight, he would have been sure, and then there
would be some wild story flashing all over America. That is why I ran
away. But it hurt me to leave you like that, Man."

"It cut off all my arms and legs, and my head, and left me only a
trunk," I murmured.

"I couldn't think what else to do; indeed, I could hardly think at
all. But I knew Molly and Jack were going to Chambery to spend a day,
and I thought I might catch them there, if I hurried. You see, Molly
and I wrote to each other sometimes, though I never said a word about
you. I didn't dream you'd knew them, until one day you announced
things you'd said to Molly in a letter, which--which--well, things
which would need a lot of explanation, too difficult for black and
white."

"By Jove!" I exclaimed. "Now I know where I'd seen your handwriting
before. It was in a letter which Molly dropped