Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 30.pdf/68

58 [August 12, 1882. with its palace and fine old church charmingly grouped among trees, a little loch glittering below in the sunshine.

A DANGEROUS GUIDE.

A STORY IN TWO CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I.

stood at the door of her cottage, looking anxiously down the rond between the mountains. She shaded her eyes with her brown palm and peered along the winding way, which was visible for a mile, except where it curved round the base of a rock too ponderous to be removed. Yes, at last there was no mistake, there was a traveller walking towards her cottage.

"Time enough, too," she soliloquised. "Since they opened the new road on the other side of the hill all the carriages go that way, and no one comes here except some poor tourist who can't afford to ride, or an artist who carries his brushes on his back and little enough besides. Who is going to buy my beautiful carvings that I got from Paris now, I wonder?"

It certainly seemed hard to the fräulein that a diversion of traffic should go so near ruining her, for she had forsaken her German home some years before and settled in Switzerland in the hope of increasing her income by furnishing the ever-increasing horde of travellers with necessaries in the shape of food and lodging, and luxuries in the shape of carved beads and trinkets of all sorta

The tourist who was now plodding up the neglected track was the first she had seen for two days.

"Good-morning, sir," she said, as soon as Hardy was within easy hail. "It's a very warm day, sir."

"Warm!" ejaculated Hardy, throwing himself on a bench; "it's melting. I've left a good part of myself on the road. If this goes on I must erect a monument to my remains in Switzerland when I go home, Drink, my good woman; I am parching."

But before he had finished asking for it she had brought him a large jug of milk, which he seized and drained,

"That lubricates the thorax satisfactorily," he remarked as he finished. "Now, my good woman, I've a friend a little way behind. Can you put us up for the night!"

"Yes, sir; I've two nice clean beds."

"You're sure they're clean!"

"Oh yes, air; they haven't been slept in for a long while." "Oh, haven't they! You had better run a warming-pan through them, then, if you have such an article; if not, my hat on the end of an alpenstock will do just as well, for it's nearly red-hot. I'll just go in and have a wash and a shave if you will show me my room."

"This way, sir; it's got a beautiful view."

Hardy picked up his knapsack and followed her, remarking to himself:

"Beautiful view! That's what they always say when your window opens on the back of a cowshed."

Probably he would not have gone straight to his room had he chanced to look along the road in the direction of the summit of the pass, for there stood a charming little maiden marshalling her goats preparatory to driving them to the enclosure for milking. But though he had not seen her, she had caught eight of him, and after her goats were safely housed she tripped down to the cottage to see who had arrived.

Life was rather monotonous amongst the mountains, and, besides, Nina had a special wish to be seen to-day, for it was her birthday, and on these festivals she was permitted to wear a necklet which a rich Englishman had given her two years ago for nursing him when he was lying ill at the cottage. So Nina left her goats, and ran to find out who had arrived.

She reached the cottage, and was just passing in at the door, when she heard a footstep behind her. Curiosity urged her to look round, but maidenly dignity forbade the step, so she passed on, wondering if the stranger would speak. He did not; but she felt an arm steal round her waist and a kiss on her cheek.

She darted round in indignation, and met the amused look of Walter, her betrothed.

"Why, Nina, are you going to be angry with me for stealing a kiss on your birthday!"

"Oh no, Walter dear; I did not know it was you."

"Who else did you think it could be, little one? Ah, I did not tell you I was coming over the pass to-day so as to see you before I return to the Brünig."

As he spoke he held out a bracelet of carved wood-not very valuable, perhaps, but it was his own work. Nina lifted up her little face to thank him with a kiss an he bent to fasten it round her wrist.