horns of the chamois, were suspended guns of modern
make, and brightly polished, formidable hunting knives. The table in
the center of the room had been carved with admirable skill; and the
half-dozen chairs were oddly fashioned of stags' antlers, shaped to
hold fur-cushioned, wooden seats. A carved dresser of black oak held a
store of the coarse blue, red and green china made by peasants in the
valley below, through which Virginia had driven yesterday; and these
bright colored dishes were eked out with platters and great tankards
of old pewter, while in the deep fireplace a gipsy kettle swung over a
bed of fragrant pinewood embers.

"This is a delightful place--fit for a king, or even for an Emperor,"
said Virginia, when the bare-kneed chamois hunter had offered her a
chair near the fire, and crossed the room to open the closed cupboard
under the dresser shelves.

He was stooping as she spoke, but at her last words looked round over
his shoulder.

"We mountain men aren't afraid of a little work--when it's for our own
comfort," he replied. "And most of the things you see here are
home-made, during the long winters."

"Then you are all very clever indeed. But this place is interesting;
tell me, has the Emperor ever been your guest here? I've read--let me
see, could it have been in a guide-book or in some paper?--that he
comes occasionally to this northern range of mountains."

"Oh yes, the Emperor has been at our hut several times. He's good
enough to approve it." Her host answered calmly, laying a loaf of
black bread, a fine seeded cheese, and a knuckle of ham on the table.
He then glanced at his guest, expecting her to come forward; but she
sat still on her throne of antlers, her small feet in their sensible
mountain boots, daintily crossed under the short tweed skirt.

"I hear he also is a good chamois hunter," she carelessly went on.
"But that, perhaps, is only the flattery which makes the atmosphere of
Royalty. No doubt you, for instance, could really give him many
points in chamois hunting?"

The young man smiled. "The Emperor's not a bad shot."

"For an amateur. But you're a professional. I wager now, that you
wouldn't for the world change places with the Emperor?"

How the chamois hunter laughed at this, and showed his white teeth!
There were those, in the towns he scorned, who would have been
astonished at his light-hearted mirth.

"Change places with the Emperor! Not--unless I were obliged, gna'
F