"Far beyond, where the mouth of the gorge spread out littered with
monstrous destruction, we saw the hundred threads of the glacier streams
collect into a single rope of silver, that went drawn between the hills,
a highway of water. It was all a majestic panorama of grey and pearly
white--the sky, the torrents, the mountains; but the blue and rusty green
of the stone pines, flung abroad in hanging woods and coppices, broke up
and distributed the infinite serenity of the snow fields.

"Presently, having drunk deep of rich content, we rose to retrace our
steps. For, spurred by vanity, we must be returning the way we had come,
to show our confident experience of glaciers.

"All went well. Actually we had passed over near two-thirds of the
ice-bed, when a touch on my arm stayed me, and _ma mie_ looked into my
eyes, very comical and insolent.

"'Little cabbage,' she said; 'will you not put your new knowledge to
account?'

"'But how, my soul?'

"She laughed and pressed my arm to her side. Her heart fluttered like a
nestling after its first flight.

"'To rest on the little prowess of a small adventure! No, no! Shall he
who has learnt to swim be always content to bathe in shallow water?'

"I was speechless as I gazed on her.