establishment of the baths. A steep zigzag path with almost never-
ending steps had been made along the face of the rock from a little
flower garden attached to the house which lay immediately under the
mountain. Close along the front of the hotel ran a little brawling
river, leaving barely room for a road between it and the door; over
this there was a wooden bridge leading to the garden, and some two or
three hundred yards from the bridge began the steps by which the
ascent was made to the grotto.

When the season was full and the weather perfectly warm the place was
much frequented. There was a green table in it, and four or five
deal chairs; a green garden seat also was there, which however had
been removed into the innermost back corner of the excavation, as its
hinder legs were somewhat at fault. A wall about two feet high ran
along the face of it, guarding its occupants from the precipice. In
fact it was no grotto, but a little chasm in the rock, such as we
often see up above our heads in rocky valleys, and which by means of
these steep steps had been turned into a source of exercise and
amusement for the visitors at the hotel.

Standing at the wall one could look down into the garden, and down
also upon the shining slate roof of Madame Bauche's house; and to the
left might be seen the sombre, silent, snow-capped top of stern old
Canigou, king of mountains among those Eastern Pyrenees.

And so Madame Bauche undertook to send Marie up to the grotto, and
Adolphe undertook to follow her thither. It was now spring; and
though the winds had fallen and the snow was no longer lying on the
lower peaks, still the air was fresh and cold, and there was no
danger that any of the few guests at the establishment would visit