below us, I saw that there was something on Molly's mind for she was
_distraite_. Suddenly she said, "Before you talk to Herr Widmer about
your mule, don't you think that you had better decide absolutely upon
your route?"

"But, darling," objected Jack, "that is largely what he wants advice
about."

"He can't do better than take mine, then," said Molly. "Lord Lane,
_promise_ me you'll take mine and _no_ one's else."

"Of course I'll promise," I answered recklessly, for her eyes were
irresistible, and any man would have been enraptured that so exquisite
a creature should interest herself in his fate. "It doesn't much
matter to me where I go, so long as I can moon about in the mountains,
and eventually, before I'm old and grey, bring up on the Riviera."

"Well, then," said Molly, "since you are so accommodating, I not only
advise but _order_ you to go over the Great St. Bernard Pass, down to
Aosta."

"Might a humble mortal ask, 'Why Aosta?'" I ventured.

"Because it's beautiful, and beneficent, and a great many other things
which begin with B."

"You've never seen it, though," said Jack.

"But I've always wanted to see it, and as you and I have another
programme to carry out at present, it would be nice if Lord Lane would
go, and tell us all about it. He's promised me to keep a sort of
diary, for our benefit later."

"I saw the Duchess of Aosta married at Kingston-on-Thames," I
reflected aloud. "She was a very pretty girl. What am I to do after
I've made my pilgrimage to her country--about which, by the way, I
know practically nothing except that there's a poster in railway
stations which represents it as having bright pink mountains and a
purply-yellow sky?"

"Oh, after Aosta, I've no instructions," replied Molly, as if she
washed her hands of me and of my affairs. "For the rest, let Fate
decide." As she spoke, she looked mystic, sibylline, and I could
almost fancy that before her dreamy eyes arose a vision of my future
as if floating in a magic crystal. For an instant I was inclined to
beg that she would prophesy, but the mood passed. All that I asked or
expected to get from the future was a mule, a man, some mountains, and
forgetfulness.

It was decided, then, that the only questions to be put to Herr Widmer
should concern the mule. I had a vague dream of presently standing on
the balcony, while various muleteers and their well-groomed animals
passed in review under my eyes, but the landlord's first wo