"But _she_ was so serious," said Maria Dolores. "Oh, when she
threatened to lie down in the river, and let herself be drowned--!" Her
voice failed her, as at the inexpressible.

"No fear of that," said John. "The first touch of the cold water (and
icy-cold it is, a glacier-stream, you know) would bring her to her
senses. But come! You must not think of it any more. You have had a bad
shock, but no bones are broken, and now you must try to banish it all
from your mind."

"What an unaccountable child she is!" said Maria Dolores. "Surely it is
unnatural and alarming for a child to have her head so teeming with
strange freaks and fancies. Oh, I pray God to grant that nothing may
happen to her."

"The most serious evil that's likely to happen to her for the present,"
said John, "will be an indigestion of marrons glacés."

Maria Dolores' tears had gone now. She smiled. But afterwards she looked
grave again. "Oh, I wish I could get the dread of something happening to
her out of my heart. I wish she wasn't so pale and fragile-looking," she
said. Then there came a gleam in her eyes. "But you were going for a
walk, and I am detaining you."

"The object of my walk has been accomplished," said John.

"Oh?" questioned she.

"I was walking in the hope, on the chance, that I might meet you," he