breadth of snow framed by the sombre gorge--the Glacier des Bois, a
frozen estuary of the Mer de Glace.

The twilight was now falling. For the last hour or more the three
inmates of the carriage had scarcely spoken. They had unresistingly
given themselves over to the glamour of the time and place. Along the
ravines and in the lower gorges and chasms the gray dusk was gathering;
high overhead the domes and pinnacles were each instant taking deeper
tinges of rose and violet. It seemed as if a word loudly or carelessly
uttered would break the spell of the alpgluhen. It was all like a dream,
and it was in his quality of spectral figure in a dream that the driver
suddenly turned on the box, and, pointing over his shoulder with the
handle of his whip said--

"Chamouni!"




IX

MONTANVERT


The mist was still lingering in the valleys, though the remote peaks had
been kindled more than an hour by the touch of sunrise. As Lynde paced
up and down the trottoir in front of the Couronne hotel, he drew out his
watch from time to time and glanced expectantly towards the hotel
entrance. In the middle of the street stood a couple of guides, idly
holding the bridles of three mules, two of which were furnished with