The moonlight that evening was more wonderful than ever, the mountains like great ghosts of themselves.And she was up there at the hut, among them! It was very long before he went to sleep, brooding over his injuries--intending not to sleep at all, so as to be ready to be off at three o'clock.At NINE o'clock he woke.His wrath was gone; he only felt restless and ashamed.If, instead of flying out, he had made the best of it, he could have gone with them as far as the hut, could have stayed the night there.And now he cursed himself for being such a fool and idiot.Some little of that idiocy he could, perhaps, retrieve.If he started for the hut at once, he might still be in time to meet them coming down, and accompany them home.He swallowed his coffee, and set off.He knew the way at first, then in woods lost it, recovered the right track again at last, but did not reach the hut till nearly two o'clock.Yes, the party had made the ascent that morning--they had been seen, been heard jodelling on the top.Gewiss! Gewiss! But they would not come down the same way.Oh, no! They would be going home down to the West and over the other pass.They would be back in house before the young Herr himself.
He heard this, oddly, almost with relief.Was it the long walk alone, or being up there so high? Or simply that he was very hungry? Or just these nice friendly folk in the hut, and their young daughter with her fresh face, queer little black cloth sailor hat with long ribbons, velvet bodice, and perfect simple manners;or the sight of the little silvery-dun cows, thrusting their broad black noses against her hand? What was it that had taken away from him all his restless feeling, made him happy and content?...He did not know that the newest thing always fascinates the puppy in its gambols!...He sat a long while after lunch, trying to draw the little cows, watching the sun on the cheek of that pretty maiden, trying to talk to her in German.And when at last he said:
"Adieu!" and she murmured "Kuss die Hand.Adieu!" there was quite a little pang in his heart....Wonderful and queer is the heart of a man!...For all that, as he neared home he hastened, till he was actually running.Why had he stayed so long up there? She would be back--she would expect to see him; and that young beast of a violinist would be with her, perhaps, instead! He reached the hotel just in time to rush up and dress, and rush down to dinner.
Ah! They were tired, no doubt--were resting in their rooms.He sat through dinner as best he could; got away before dessert, and flew upstairs.For a minute he stood there doubtful; on which door should he knock? Then timidly he tapped on hers.No answer! He knocked loud on his tutor's door.No answer! They were not back, then.Not back? What could that mean? Or could it be that they were both asleep? Once more he knocked on her door; then desperately turned the handle, and took a flying glance.Empty, tidy, untouched! Not back! He turned and ran downstairs again.
All the guests were streaming out from dinner, and he became entangled with a group of 'English Grundys' discussing a climbing accident which had occurred in Switzerland.He listened, feeling suddenly quite sick.One of them, the short grey-bearded Grundy with the rather whispering voice, said to him: "All alone again to-night? The Stormers not back?" Lennan did his best to answer, but something had closed his throat; he could only shake his head.
"They had a guide, I think?" said the 'English Grundy.'
This time Lennan managed to get out: "Yes, sir.""Stormer, I fancy, is quite an expert!" and turning to the lady whom the young 'Grundys' addressed as 'Madre' he added:
"To me the great charm of mountain-climbing was always the freedom from people--the remoteness."The mother of the young 'Grundys,' looking at Lennan with her half-closed eyes, answered:
"That, to me, would be the disadvantage; I always like to be mixing with my own kind."The grey-bearded 'Grundy' murmured in a muffled voice:
"Dangerous thing, that, to say--in an hotel!"And they went on talking, but of what Lennan no longer knew, lost in this sudden feeling of sick fear.In the presence of these 'English Grundys,' so superior to all vulgar sensations, he could not give vent to his alarm; already they viewed him as unsound for having fainted.Then he grasped that there had begun all round him a sort of luxurious speculation on what might have happened to the Stormers.The descent was very nasty; there was a particularly bad traverse.The 'Grundy,' whose collar was not now crumpled, said he did not believe in women climbing.It was one of the signs of the times that he most deplored.The mother of the young 'Grundys'
countered him at once: In practice she agreed that they were out of place, but theoretically she could not see why they should not climb.An American standing near threw all into confusion by saying he guessed that it might be liable to develop their understandings.Lennan made for the front door.The moon had just come up over in the South, and exactly under it he could see their mountain.What visions he had then! He saw her lying dead, saw himself climbing down in the moonlight and raising her still-living, but half-frozen, form from some perilous ledge.Even that was almost better than this actuality of not knowing where she was, or what had happened.People passed out into the moonlight, looking curiously at his set face staring so fixedly.One or two asked him if he were anxious, and he answered: "Oh no, thanks!"Soon there would have to be a search party.How soon? He would, he must be, of it! They should not stop him this time.And suddenly he thought: Ah, it is all because I stayed up there this afternoon talking to that girl, all because I forgot HER!
And then he heard a stir behind him.There they were, coming down the passage from a side door--she in front with her alpenstock and rucksack--smiling.Instinctively he recoiled behind some plants.
They passed.Her sunburned face, with its high cheek-bones and its deep-set eyes, looked so happy; smiling, tired, triumphant.
Somehow he could not bear it, and when they were gone by he stole out into the wood and threw himself down in shadow, burying his face, and choking back a horrible dry sobbing that would keep rising in his throat.
