and it was the brute's look-out. I will not go down the Cumberland side
on my own legs. No, Molly, not even for you. But if you and Hammond want
to go to the top, there is nothing to prevent you. He is a skilled
mountaineer. I'll trust you with him.'

Mary blushed, and made no reply. Of all things in the world she least
wanted to abandon the expedition. Yet to climb Helvellyn alone with her
brother's friend would no doubt be a terrible violation of those laws of
maidenly propriety which Fräulein was always expounding. If Mary were to
do this thing, which she longed to do, she must hazard a lecture from
her governess, and probably a biting reproof from her grandmother.

'Will you trust yourself with me, Lady Mary?' asked Hammond, looking at
her with a gaze so earnest--so much more earnest than the occasion
required--that her blushes deepened and her eyelids fell. 'I have done a
good deal of climbing in my day, and I am not afraid of anything
Helvellyn can do to me. I promise to take great care of you if you will
come.'

How could she refuse? How could she for one moment pretend that she did
not trust him, that her heart did not yearn to go with him. She would
have climbed the shingly steep of Cotapaxi with him--or crossed the
great Sahara with him--and feared nothing. Her trust in him was
infinite--as infinite as her reverence and love.

'I am afraid Fräulein would make a fuss,' she faltered, after a pause.

'Hang Fräulein,' cried Maulevrier, puffing at his cigarette, and kicking
about the stones in the clear running water. 'I'll square it with
Fräulein. I'll give her a pint of fiz with her lunch, and make her see