blue distances to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa and a long regiment of sunny, snowy mountains.  And when we see them we shall at once want to go to them—­that’s the way with beautiful things—­and down we shall go, like flies down a wall, to Leukerbad, and so to Leuk Station, here, and then by train up the Rhone Valley and this little side valley to Stalden; and there, in the cool of the afternoon, we shall start off up a gorge, torrents and cliffs below us and above us, to sleep in a half-way inn, and go on next day to Saas Fee, Saas of the Magic, Saas of the Pagan People.  And there, about Saas, are ice and snows again, and sometimes we will loiter among the rocks and trees about Saas or peep into Samuel Butler’s chapels, and sometimes we will climb up out of the way of the other people on to the glaciers and snow.  And, for one expedition at least, we will go up this desolate valley here to Mattmark, and so on to Monte Moro.  There indeed you see Monte Rosa.  Almost the best of all.”

“Is it very beautiful?”

“When I saw it there it was very beautiful.  It was wonderful.  It was the crowned queen of mountains in her robes of shining white.  It towered up high above the level of the pass, thousands of feet, still, shining, and white, and below, thousands of feet below, was a floor of little woolly clouds.  And then presently these clouds began to wear thin and expose steep, deep slopes, going down and down, with grass and pine-trees, down and down, and at last, through a great rent in the clouds, bare roofs, shining like very minute pin-heads, and a road like a fibre of white silk-Macugnana, in Italy.  That will be a fine day—­it will have to be, when first you set eyes on Italy....  That’s as far as we go.”

“Can’t we go down into Italy?”

“No,” he said; “it won’t run to that now.  We must wave our hands at the blue hills far away there and go back to London and work.”

“But Italy—­”

“Italy’s for a good girl,” he said, and laid his hand for a moment on her shoulder.  “She must look forward to Italy.”

“I say,” she reflected, “you are rather the master, you know.”

The idea struck him as novel.  “Of course I’m manager for this expedition,” he said, after an interval of self-examination.

She slid her cheek down the tweed sleeve of his coat.  “Nice sleeve,” she said, and came to his hand and kissed it.

“I say!” he cried.  “Look here!  Aren’t you going a little too far?  This—­this is degradation—­making a fuss with sleeves.  You mustn’t do things like that.”

“Why not?”

“Free woman—­and equal.”

“I do it—­of my own free will,” said Ann Veronica, kissing his hand again.  “It’s nothing to what I will do.”

“Oh, well!” he said, a little doubtfully, “it’s just a phase,” and bent down and rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment, with his heart beating and his nerves a-quiver.  Then as she lay very still, with her hands clinched and her black hair tumbled about her face, he came still closer and softly kissed the nape of her neck....