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THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
three vassar girls. 
 
 
 ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY. 
 
 
 m 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN ITALY. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS ON THE RHINE. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS AT HOME. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 
 
 THREE 
 
 VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 
 • 
 
 ESTES & LAURIAT, Publishers, 
 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
ft 
 
AT THE ALTDORF FESTIVAL. 
 
 ,- / 
 
Three Vassar Girls 
 
 IN 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH w! CHAMPNEY, 
 
 H 
 
 AUTHOR OF " A NEGLECTED CORNER OF EUROPE," " THREE VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD,' 
 "THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN ENGLAND," ETC. 
 
 J 
 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY "CHAMP" 
 
 And other Distinguished Artists. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ESTES & LAURIAT, 
 
 PUBLISHERS. 
 
 \^-\o\ 
 
IX 
 
 Copyright, i8go, 
 By ESTES & LAURIAT. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A Skeleton Key and Margaret's Mistake n 
 
 II. Annette's Revenge 20 
 
 III. Geneva ' 34 
 
 IV. The Countess 51 
 
 V. The Jungfrau and the Oberland 72 
 
 VI. Lucerne , . . 90 
 
 VII. The Tell Festival 106 
 
 VIII. Our Lady of Poverty . 123 
 
 IX. Life at the Alm 143 
 
 X. Lost 158 
 
 XI. The. Wagner Festival. Bavaria 177 
 
 XII. The Fairy Cow 192 
 
 XIII. The Great St. Bernard and Mont Blanc 205 
 
 XIV. The Fete des Vignerons 222 
 
 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 At the Altdorf Festival ......... 3 
 
 Margaret 12 
 
 Annette 13 
 
 The Castle of Weierburg 15 
 
 St. Cecilia as Mediator 21 
 
 Grandfather Houghton 24 
 
 A Swiss Mountain Torrent 25 
 
 An Alpine Waterfall 27 
 
 " Do You want to go to Prison or to Switzer- 
 land?" 31 
 
 Grandfather Houghton in Alpine Costume . 37 
 
 " Mer de Glace," Mont Blanc 39 
 
 Alice Newton 41 
 
 The Girl in the Hading Veil 42 
 
 Calumet and Hecla 43 
 
 Lord Highnose 44 
 
 Mr. Walker 45 
 
 The Hotel Neuchatelois 46 
 
 The Prisoner of Chillon 47 
 
 The Countess 52 
 
 Lajos 54 
 
 " Calumet and Hecla is up ! " 57 
 
 Peasant Waitress 58 
 
 The Dent du Midi from above the Lake of 
 
 Geneva 59 
 
 The Countess enthroned 65 
 
 The Entomologist receives the Apology . . 68 
 
 A Metamorphosed Native of Interlaken . . 76 
 
 The Jungfrau 77 
 
 The Judge salutes the Jungfrau 78 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Positively Fwiteful ! " 82 
 
 The Wellhorn and Wetterhorn 85 
 
 Mr. Barney Jones in Difficulties 88 
 
 Pilatus, Lake of Lucerne 91 
 
 Hotel National, Lucerne 93 
 
 Stock Quotations 96 
 
 Annette takes her Departure 99 
 
 Bridge of Lucerne . 102 
 
 Margaret and Alice discuss Lajos .... 109 
 
 The Rigi, from Lucerne ill 
 
 A Swiss Maiden 113 
 
 Tell's Chapel, Lake of Lucerne 114 
 
 Costume of Peasant of Untervvalden . . .116 
 
 Railway up the Rigi 119 
 
 The Comforts of Donkey-riding 121 
 
 On the Brink of a Precipice 124 
 
 The: Matterhorn 125 
 
 Katchen . 132 
 
 Yakob Lochwalder 133 
 
 A Goatherd of the Zermatt Valley . . . .139 
 
 Yakob accepts his Relatives 145 
 
 The Accident on the Matterhorn . . . . 149 
 
 The Real Thing at last 156 
 
 The Great Aletsch Glacier 163 
 
 Mother Lochwalder 166 
 
 Rescuing Party on the Matterhorn .... 169 
 
 On the Matterhorn 170 
 
 Abbey of Einsiedeln 179 
 
 Frau Selig 1 S2 
 
 Minna 183 
 
 9 
 
IO 
 
 ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 A Devotee of Wagner ...... 
 
 Listening to " Parsifal," No. I 
 Listening to " Parsifal," No. 2 
 
 Mrs. Newton 
 
 On the Ficht.lgebirge 
 
 Nikolas 
 
 A Peasant of Zermatt 
 
 A Peasant Woman of the Zermatt Valley 
 
 S 7 
 SS 
 
 97 
 
 99 
 
 201 
 
 The Great St. Bernard 209 
 
 Barry, the Brave Dog of St. Bernard . . . 213 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Baron .....„„.„... 217 
 
 Baroness of Hohenschlosse 217 
 
 "To think that I was like that ! " . . „ .218 
 
 A Student of Berne 224 
 
 High Street, Berne 225 
 
 Katchen Americanized . . . ... . . 227 
 
 At the Festival 228 
 
 Taking it all in 229 
 
 Vintage Festival, Vevey 231 
 
 Kisfaludy Janos 233 
 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS 
 
 IN 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 j%KC 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A SKELETON KEY AND MARGARET'S MISTAKE. 
 
 " A ND to think that by a word it is in my power to prove her the 
 f-\ grand-niece of a baroness." 
 
 The speaker was Annette Stauffer, a Swiss girl, ex-seam- 
 stress and waitress in Margaret's home. She spoke to herself, ex- 
 citedly, as she rapidly packed her trunk, for she had just given up her 
 situation. 
 
 " Shall I furnish the missing link in the chain of evidence, and 
 prove her the child of one of the proudest houses of Austria ? No ; 
 she is arrogant enough as she is. She has treated me as if I were the 
 earth to be trodden upon. She is a bundle of selfishness, through and 
 through. She cares for no one but herself. If it were Miss Boylston, 
 so kind and thoughtful of others, so gentle and so generous, I would 
 work my fingers to stubs to serve her; but My Lady Disdain, never." 
 
 Annette was wrong. Margaret was not wholly selfish. She pos- 
 sessed magnificent qualities, capabilities of self-sacrifice and devotion ; 
 but these were as yet undeveloped, and hidden under the crust of a 
 love of ease. It was true that she was haughty, and apt to exhibit 
 a fine scorn of everything mean and base; but the scorn was more 
 frequently excited by moral meanness than by low rank in the social 
 scale. Rank of intellect and heroism commanded an almost over- 
 
 ii 
 
12 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 weening admiration from her, and it was her special heartburn that 
 none of her own family had distinguished themselves in any way. 
 She would have liked to be a leader in society for some real merit of 
 her own, or of her ancestors ; and she was a leader among her friends 
 
 and associates both at home and at col- 
 lege, for the good and sufficient reason 
 of ability. The name of Margaret Duf- 
 fey figured as President of the Phila- 
 lethean Society, President of the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, Presi- 
 dent of the Tennis Club, of the Dra- 
 matic Association, of her class, Senior 
 Editor of the Miscellany, and Chairman 
 of the Executive Committee of half a 
 dozen other organizations. It was a 
 vexation to her that it was such a ple- 
 beian name — Margaret Duffey ! It had 
 a orenuine Irish sound. One would im- 
 agine, on reading it, that it belonged to 
 a laundress. She had said this before 
 Annette, and the sewing-woman's gray 
 eyes had snapped viciously. " She de- 
 spises all the laboring class," Annette 
 thought, "and me with the rest." But 
 Margaret was not thinking of Annette 
 at all. " What makes it all the more vexatious," she added, speaking 
 to her friend Cecilia Boylston, familiarly called Saint, who was visiting 
 her that summer, "is the fact that it is not really our name at all. 
 Grandfather came to this country a political refugee, and changed 
 his name to preserve his incognito. He might have chosen a pleas- 
 anter appellation, when he had so unlimited a choice. When father 
 was a boy he was told our real name ; but would you believe it, he 
 
 MARGARET. 
 
A SKELETON KEY AND MARGARET'S MISTAKE. 
 
 l 3 
 
 attached so little importance to it that he forgot it. He can only 
 remember that it sounded like Duffey, but was more aristocratic." 
 
 " Did your grandfather leave no relatives in Europe ? " Cecilia 
 asked, while Annette, who was sewing in the corner, pricked up 
 her ears. 
 
 "Yes; there was a little sister Margaret, of whom he was very 
 fond. When I was born he insisted that father should name me for 
 her, and he wrote to her of my 
 birth. Grandfather was an old 
 man then, and when the reply to 
 the letter came from my great- 
 aunt he lay on his death-bed. 
 He charged my father to keep 
 it for me, as it might prove to 
 my advantage some day." 
 
 " Surely, Margaret, this let- 
 ter must give you all the infor- 
 mation you wish." 
 
 " Information ! That is just 
 
 what it does not give. It is full 
 of expressions of affection for 
 her dear elder brother, for the 
 nephew whom she had never 
 seen, and for the little name- 
 sake, who, she hopes, will some 
 day visit her god-mother. But 
 the letter is dated, simply, ' The annette. 
 
 Riffel,' and signed ' Greta.' I 
 
 know that The Riffel is in Switzerland ; but father has an impression 
 that we are not of Swiss extraction. I have a picture of the Weier- 
 burg, which I fancy looks like the home which she describes. 
 
 Annette listened greedily. She longed to see the letter of which 
 
14 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Margaret spoke, for her own home was near Zermatt and the 
 Riffelburg. " Perhaps I knew her great-aunt, or at least, could help 
 to find her," she said to herself ; but she did not mention this to 
 Margaret, or ask to see the letter. This was not her way of 
 procedure. 
 
 She fancied that when she was not present people must be talking 
 about her, and she listened at keyholes to learn what they were saying. 
 Pierre, the gardener, meant, simply, that she had a suspicious nature, 
 when he remarked that Annette was " naturally surreptitious " ; but 
 the statement was perfectly true as it stood. It was not possible for 
 Annette to be frank and open-handed. She was frightfully cross-eyed, 
 and watched you narrowly, when she appeared to be interested in 
 something in the opposite direction, and this physical defect seemed 
 to have affected her character. She had a cross-eyed way of accom- 
 plishing all her designs. She was consumed with curiosity to ascer- 
 tain Margaret's ancestry, and she would ascertain it ; but Margaret 
 should never know that it interested her in the least. So she sewed 
 the ruche into Margaret's best gown, and thought with glee of the 
 skeleton key in her pocket, and that she would have two good hours 
 to rummage for that letter, while the young ladies were at the lawn 
 party, for Mrs. D-uffey was away from home. She needed all the time ; 
 for it was not in the little secretary through which she looked first, 
 nor in the safe under the stairs with the silver, nor in the japanned 
 tin box in which Mr. Duffey kept his stocks and bonds, or in any of 
 the bureau drawers, or behind the sliding panel over the mantel, a 
 secret hiding-place where Mrs. Duffey kept her jewels, which Annette 
 had discovered the second day after her arrival ; but it dropped at last 
 out of the atlas where Margaret had carelessly left it in searching for 
 The Riffel. Annette sat down and read eagerly. The letter was 
 written in a delicate foreign script, in Austrian-German, very easy 
 for Annette, but puzzling for Margaret to decipher. It ran as 
 follows : — 
 
THE CASTLE OF WEIERBURG. 
 
A SKELETON KEY AND MARGARET'S MISTAKE. I 7 
 
 " RlFFELHAUS, SWITZERLAND, July, 
 
 " My Dear Brother, — I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am to 
 receive your letter. I had not heard from you for so long, that my 
 heart imagined many tragedies. And so I am a great-aunt ? That 
 sounds almost like a grandmother. The honor comes to me early, 
 owing to the great difference in our ages. Only a child when you 
 went away to America, but I remember the sorrowful day very clearly 
 still. There are some things which are so branded into our memo- 
 ries that we can never forget them. 
 
 " But the little girl ! I am glad that she has come, and that you 
 have named her for me. My god-daughter as well as grand-niece. 
 Some day, now that our calamities seem to be overpast, she must 
 come to her Aunt Greta. I shall not be such a very old woman when 
 she is grown. I hope she will want to come to me. Tell her the way 
 to the old home beside the mountain, with the window overhanging 
 the precipice, from which they say you used to fish for swallows, with 
 a fish-line, when a boy. Tell her all your old haunts, and I will show 
 them to her. How you used to love to hang over that balcony ! I 
 remember that once you rescued a little dog that had fallen into the 
 valley. You made a slip-noose, the loop of which was a handkerchief, 
 and, passing it over his body, drew him up to your window. A few 
 days since, I saw a peasant girl of Zermatt draw a lamb out of the 
 torrent which ran under her balcony, in much the same way, and the 
 action reminded me so of you that I brought her home with me as 
 my maid " — 
 
 There had bef n something familiar to Annette in the story as 
 Margaret had told it ; but with the incident of the lamb it all came 
 back to her. Without any doubt, the Austrian Baroness who spent 
 that same summer, eighteen years ago, at the Riffelhaus, with whom 
 Annette, then a young peasant girl, served as maid, was Margaret's 
 great-aunt. She remembered rescuing the lamb, and that she did it, 
 
1 8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 not from any feeling of mercy, but because she was fond of roast 
 mutton. To make assurance doubly sure, there was the Baroness's 
 crest on the waxen seal, so indistinct that Margaret had not made it 
 out, but Annette could trace the firebrand held by a gauntleted hand. 
 
 And how like Margaret was to her god-mother, — the same impe- 
 rious manners. Strange that she had not noticed the likeness before, 
 — and as fond of riding on horse back. So absorbed was Annette in 
 the letter that she did not hear a light step on the stair, or look up 
 until Margaret stood before her and snatched the letter from her hands 
 in a rage of indignation. " What do you mean by reading my letters ? " 
 she exclaimed. "How dare you? And my desk open! How did 
 you manage that ? What ? A skeleton key ! Annette, you are a 
 thief." 
 
 Annette sprang to her feet, the color flaming into her pale face. 
 
 " I am not. What have I stolen ? Look in my trunk, look in my 
 room, look everywhere." 
 
 " I do not care to look. I am not one of the prying kind." 
 
 " I demand it. You called me a thief. Prove that it is so, or else 
 you lie. What have you ever missed ? " 
 
 The two angry women stood facing each other as Cecilia entered 
 the room with a calm, " What is the matter?" 
 
 Margaret showed the skeleton key, and told her story. 
 
 "Appearances are against you, Annette," said Cecilia. "What 
 explanation have you to offer? What possible need has an honest 
 woman of a skeleton key ? " 
 
 " My brother was a locksmith ; he made it for me, so I need not 
 trouble myself with a great many keys, — one for my trunk, another 
 for my room, another for my bureau." 
 
 " Very convenient ; and equally so for all of our locks, I presume." 
 This from Margaret, in her most sneering accents. 
 
 " Be it so. I ask again, what have you ever missed ? I have been 
 with you four years. I could with that key unlock your safe, your 
 
A SKELETOJV KEY AND MARGARET'S MISTAKE. 
 
 19 
 
 father's money-box, your mother's jewel-case, everything, — that is 
 true, — but what has been stolen since I lived with you — nothing — " 
 
 " Is this true ? " Cecilia asked. 
 
 " I believe it is," Margaret replied. " I have been too hasty, and I 
 apologize. You are no thief, Annette; but you are what I despise 
 just as much, — a prying, spying, suspicious eavesdropper. No; you 
 needn't speak up. I stumbled over you the other day, in the entry, 
 when I opened the door more quickly than you expected. You were 
 listening, and you can't deny it. I absolve you from any intention of 
 stealing. It was probably curiosity, and nothing else, which led you 
 to ransack my desk and read my letters. If not, what motive had you 
 for spying into my affairs ? Are you a special detective ? " 
 
 There was only one way for Annette to vindicate herself, and she 
 told a part of the truth. 
 
 " I heard what you said this morning, Miss Margaret, of a letter 
 from your great-aunt, from The Riffel. You know I come from that 
 region ; and I wanted to see if possibly I knew her, and I found 
 that I did." 
 
 " What, you knew my Aunt Greta ? " Margaret exclaimed excitedly. 
 " Tell me about her ! Is she alive ? Can I find her ? " 
 
 It was Annette's turn to triumph. " I knew her, I could help you 
 find her ; but you have called me a thief, you have resented my prying 
 into your affairs. I will have nothing more to do with them. I leave 
 your mother's employ to-day. You may tell her why. But I shall 
 call, on Saturday, for my wages, and for a recommendation for honesty, 
 Miss Margaret, for honesty, and for minding my own business. Do 
 you understand ? " 
 
2Q THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANNETTE S REVENGE. 
 
 WHEN Margaret became sufficiently calm to consider the 
 matter coolly, she felt that she had made a great mistake in 
 allowing her temper to make an enemy of Annette. 
 
 " My angry passions are always getting me into trouble," she said 
 remorsefully. " I can never learn to hold my tongue, and count an 
 hundred. And now I shall never find my fairy god-mother." 
 
 " Perhaps it was only a piece of bravado on Annette's part, by way 
 of revenge." 
 
 " No ; she is truthful as well as honest, and not quick at invention. 
 There was too much genuine triumph in her eyes. I have narrowly 
 missed a great piece of good fortune." 
 
 " If you really regret having spoken as you did, why don't you go 
 right to her and apologize ? " 
 
 " It would be of no use. But Saint, dear, she dotes on you ; inter- 
 cede for me." 
 
 With many misgivings, Cecilia tapped at Annette's door. " Who's 
 there?" was the ungracious response; but on hearing Cecilia's voice, 
 the maid unbarred the door. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks 
 swollen ; she had been weeping passionately. Cecilia put her arms 
 about her and gently soothed her. " Margaret is very sorry," she said, 
 after a time. "Will you not forgive her?" 
 
 The girl stiffened instantly. " If Miss Margaret is sorry, why does 
 she not come and say so ? " 
 
 "She will, if you will let her — " 
 
 " She can do as she pleases ; it makes no difference to me." 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 
 
 21 
 
 " But it makes a difference to Margaret. She has a good heart, 
 and regrets that she has caused you pain." 
 
 Annette sniffed scornfully. Cecilia remained with her some time 
 longer, but could only make her agree not to leave the house until 
 Mrs. Duffey's return that evening. 
 
 There was a family council on the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Duffey. 
 Seated around the library table, they discussed the matter in all its 
 bearings, while Annette 
 listened in the entry. 
 
 Mr. Duffey was of the 
 opinion that the girl's 
 freaks were not worthy 
 of consideration. " I have 
 lived without my precious 
 relative all my life, and I 
 can do without her now. 
 If she had cared for me 
 in all these years, she 
 have looked me 
 
 might 
 up." 
 
 " But her kind letter 
 was never answered, was 
 it, Theodore ? " asked gen- 
 tle Mrs. Duffey. "She 
 
 must have thought that it never reached its destination, or that we 
 did not care to keep up friendly relations." 
 
 " It was never answered, because, when it arrived, father was too 
 feeble in mind to attend to it, and he was the only one who knew the 
 address. She was only staying for a short time at the Riff el Hotel ; 
 and I have no idea where the old home that she speaks of is. It may 
 be in the neighborhood, and it may be miles away. It is my opinion 
 that Annette knows nothing about the matter." 
 
 ST. CECILIA AS MEDIATOR. 
 
22 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " It seems strange to me, father," said Margaret, "that you never 
 inquired more about your family from grandpa." 
 
 " Father very early showed me that such inquiries were useless. 
 ' I am a proscribed man, by no fault of my own, under penalty of 
 death,' he confided to me. ' I have no longer any country or antece- 
 dents, no home or family, except that which I can found here. The 
 past is closed behind us ; let us look only to the future..' If I had 
 known more, I might have endangered his life ; but having no secrets 
 in my possession, I could not divulge them. I have reason to believe 
 that letters not unfrequently passed between my father and his sister ; 
 but hers were always carefully destroyed. This is the only one which 
 has been preserved." 
 
 " And this looks forward to a happy meeting with the little Greta, 
 ' now that our calamities are overpast.' " 
 
 " I used to think she might come to this country," said Mr. DufTey ; 
 " and I confess there was no great pleasure in the anticipation. After 
 I had the honor of so respectable a connection as with your mother's 
 family, I used to wonder what my honored father-in-law would say if 
 a Nihilistic female with a carpet-bag full of dynamite should some day 
 dismount from an omnibus at our doors, and exclaim, ' I am your long- 
 lost aunt ! ' I tell you what, Greta, you had better let well enough 
 alone. Your great-aunt is an unknown quantity, and we are very 
 happy as we are." 
 
 " But your father was not a criminal," Mrs. Duffey remarked. 
 " He was a perfect gentleman, Theodore ; and my father respected 
 him highly. Whatever his misfortune, it was no fault of his, I am 
 sure." 
 
 " And if aunt is an unknown quantity, there is the possibility that 
 she may be a lady of rank," Margaret suggested, " a baroness, per- 
 haps — " (There was a slight noise in the entry.) " And at any rate, 
 we shall ascertain what our real name is; and it can't be worse than 
 Duffey." 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 
 
 2 3 
 
 " There is only one chance out of a million of your drawing a 
 prize," Mr. Duffey insisted, practically. "Suppose you discover some 
 very undesirable relatives, if not actual criminals, — poor, ignorant 
 peasants. This Aunt Greta is an old woman by this time. Imagine 
 her poverty-stricken, disagreeable, diseased — " 
 
 Then for an instant Margaret showed her better nature. " In that 
 case, father, is there no duty laid on us ? We have enough and to 
 spare. Is it not dishonest for us to leave a relative in possible 
 need ? " 
 
 Mr. Duffey looked at his daughter in surprised admiration. " And 
 if she needs more than money ? I could furnish that, — but if she 
 needs personal care and attention ? " 
 
 " I think you would find that I would not fail." Margaret spoke 
 modestly but firmly ; but Annette in the entry gave so loud a sniff of 
 scornful doubt, that Mrs. Duffey started. 
 
 " Did you hear that noise ? It reminded me of a snake in the 
 grass." 
 
 " More likely a rat in the arras, a la Hamlet," replied Margaret, 
 pointing significantly at the entry door. No one sprang to open it ; 
 all were agreed that the best policy now was conciliation. 
 
 " And do you agree with your daughter's sentiments ? " asked Mr. 
 Duffey. 
 
 " Certainly," replied his wife. " Only prove that she is your aunt, 
 and I will receive any one." 
 
 " I wonder whether the Judge would agree with you." 
 
 " I think it would be better to consult with father, of course," 
 said Mrs. Duffey; "he has such excellent judgment." 
 
 It was at once decided to adjourn the council to the home of 
 Mrs. Duffey's father. 
 
 The family found Judge Houghton deeply immersed in making- 
 jottings from his scrap-book collection of the " Doings of the New 
 York Geographical Society." So absorbed was he that, ordinarily 
 
24 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 punctilious, he had forgotten to take off his high hat. He greeted 
 them all effusively, however, and began to talk at once. 
 
 " I am arranging for my summer vacation," he said briskly; "and 
 I have been looking over all the lectures that have been given before 
 our society. I want to do something this summer that I can utilize 
 in a lecture, with stereopticon views, at Chickering Hall this winter; 
 and I have decided that the Higher Alps are just what I want. 
 Don't some of you want to go with me ? Mother, here, thinks she 
 
 is too old for mountain- 
 eering." 
 
 " I will go with you, 
 grandpa," Margaret spoke 
 up promptly. " At least, 
 as far as The Riff el, if 
 that's in your itinerary." 
 
 " The very place to start 
 from for the best moun- 
 taineering: just at the foot 
 of the Matterhorn and the 
 Weisshorn and Monte 
 Rosa, and Mont Blanc 
 within a stone's throw, so 
 to speak. 
 " Only look at' this panorama outlined in Baedeker, of the view 
 from the Gorner Grat, near the Riffel Hotel, and listen while I read 
 a description of it from William H. Rideing. 
 
 ; ' On the one side the broad stream of the Gorner Glacier sweeps 
 along beneath our feet, and across it rise the huge mountains by which 
 the ice stream is augmented: Monte Rosa — Queen of the Alps — 
 with her coronet of peaks ; the wedge-like mass of the Lyskamm ; the 
 Snowy Twins (Castor and Pollux) ; and the long, craggy ridge of the 
 white-capped Breithorn. Then comes a break, as the eye sweeps over 
 
 GRANDFATHER HOUGHTON. 
 
:_;:^g 
 
 A SWISS MOUNTAIN TORRENT. 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 
 
 27 
 
 the plateau traversed by the well-known Theodule Pass, to rest on the 
 grandest sight in all the Alps, the marvellous Matterhorn, seen ' 
 
 in one 
 
 AN ALPINE WATERFALL. 
 
 of its most impressive aspects, — an obelisk of snow-flecked rock, four 
 thousand feet in height. Beyond this comes another company of 
 giants, the peaks from the Dent Blanche to the Weisshorn. There 
 
2 8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 is no spot in the whole of the Alps, accessible with such ease, which 
 commands a grander panoramic view ; nothing of the kind surpasses 
 in grandeur and beauty its circle of peaks and glaciers.' 
 
 " There, Margaret, have you followed me carefully, and found all 
 the names mentioned on the outline ? " 
 
 " Yes, grandpa." 
 
 " Well, The Riffel is just the locality for me to take as my centre 
 of operations. I am glad you have been thinking of the same 
 place." 
 
 " I really think some one ought to go with you and take care of 
 you, father," said Mrs. Duffey. " Margaret is just the one. You can 
 make a great many excursions together. She's a great walker." 
 
 " I know it, I know it," exclaimed the old gentleman in high glee. 
 
 " Margaret will have her hands full," said anxious Mrs. Houghton. 
 "You are entirely too old, John, to go trampoozling over the moun- 
 tains, when you might rest your bones comfortably at home." 
 
 " Too old ! Look at the other members of the club! I'm an infant 
 compared with the best travellers." 
 
 "That is true," replied Margaret; "it is a most venerable assem- 
 blage. When I look down upon it from the gallery, the bald heads 
 have the appearance of white stones peeping up above water from a 
 ford. I often imagine myself skipping from one to the other, across 
 the entire length of the hall." 
 
 "You dreadful child! Is there no Prophet Elisha, to call down a 
 troop of bears, to punish such irreverence ? " 
 
 " No, grandpa ; and the bears are too busy, down in Wall Street, 
 to care for naughty me. But listen while we tell you why I have 
 decided to go to Switzerland this summer." 
 
 " I did not know you had decided," said Mr. Duffey. " I thought 
 it was to be submitted to your Grandfather Houghton ; and I am sure 
 he will disapprove." 
 
 But Judge Houghton, influenced, possibly, to some extent, by his 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 29 
 
 own desire to avail himself of so lively a travelling companion, looked 
 on the scheme with favor. 
 
 "We need not commit ourselves to anything," he said. "We can 
 simply find out, or try to find out, the truth. The first thing to do is 
 to ascertain what Annette really knows. Have you made it up with 
 her, Margaret ? " 
 
 " I am afraid not, grandpa. This miserable business has taught 
 me to try to keep a tighter rein on my temper. I went to her, after 
 Saint had labored with her, and apologized ; but she would not utter 
 one syllable. I am afraid she will not help us." 
 
 " We will see," said the Judge. " I'll dine with you to-morrow. 
 Let me deal with her." 
 
 " But will she remain ? " asked Margaret. " She only promised 
 Saint to stay until she had spoken with you, mamma." 
 
 " I have given her no opportunity to speak with me, as yet," said 
 Mrs. Duffey. " I think we can manage an interview." 
 
 Annette, after her white heat of passion had subsided, was not 
 anxious to lose her good situation ; but her decision that she would 
 not to carry into effect her threat of leaving the family, did not argue 
 any forgiveness of Margaret. On the contrary, she was convinced 
 that she could better revenge herself by remaining near her, and that 
 neither the pincers of the Inquisition, nor any amount of kindness, 
 would either wrest or coax from her the information which was so 
 much desired. 
 
 It will therefore be readily understood that Judge Houghton, with 
 all his legal wile and acumen, had a difficult subject to handle. 
 
 He began in a conciliatory way, and assumed that Annette would 
 gladly assist them, for a little compensation. 
 
 " You are a good girl, Annette," he remarked ; " and I understand 
 that you send back a very large proportion of your earnings to your 
 family in Switzerland. You are doubtless very fond of them. When 
 do you propose to go back for a visit." 
 
3° 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Annette answered, very truly, that, much as she desired this, she 
 was too poor to think of even a steerage passage. 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed the delighted strategist. " Then you will be 
 pleased to learn that I contemplate taking a trip to Switzerland, with 
 my granddaughter, this summer, and I would be very glad to engage 
 your services as her maid. All expenses paid, my good Annette, both 
 going and returning, and a vacation for you, after we are fairly 
 installed in some pleasant hotel, — a vacation of several weeks, in 
 which you can visit your family. How would you like that ? " 
 
 Annette's eyes shot forth a momentary gleam of pleasure, but a 
 cold gray sheath of suspicion was instantly drawn over them. 
 
 " And in return ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh ! In return, you could render my granddaughter any trifling 
 services she might require, as lady's maid and companion. You know 
 the language, and the country, the best routes, the regular fares, and 
 all that sort of thing. You could be of great service to us in enabling 
 us to dispense with a courier. And then, another thing, — my grand- 
 daughter's main object in visiting Switzerland is to look up her father's 
 family. Perhaps you could help us in discovering them." 
 
 " Perhaps ? But certainly I could help you, — if I wished. Is that 
 one of the trifling services of which you spoke, to be included in my 
 duties as lady's maid ? " 
 
 " No, no. That, of course, should have special compensation. If 
 you enable us to discover Margaret's great-aunt, I will pay the pas- 
 sage of any two of your own relatives who may want to emigrate to 
 America. Come, now ; isn't that generous ? " 
 
 " It is sufficiently generous." 
 
 " Then it's a bargain ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " What conditions do you ask ? " 
 
 " I will not do it on any conditions." 
 
 " Indeed ! Highty-tighty, young woman, better think that over 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 
 
 31 
 
 again. Do you know I can make you give me this information? 
 Perhaps you would prefer being „ committed to prison, to this tour of 
 which we have just been speaking ? " 
 
 " No one can compel me to speak ; and I can keep my own 
 counsel." 
 
 " But this isn't your own counsel. That's the point. You have, 
 or pretend to have, valuable . knowledge." 
 
 " I have it." 
 
 " Very well. You have information valu- 
 able to my client, which you refuse to render. 
 It is hers by right of law ; and the law takes 
 you in hand in the same way as if you were 
 withholding other valuables from her. Now, 
 what are you going to do about it ? Don't be 
 a fool, Annette. Consider your own interests. 
 Do you want to go to prison, or do you want 
 to go to Switzerland ? Answer me that." 
 
 Annette was a coward. She did not doubt 
 Judge Houghton's power to imprison her for 
 life ; and she was just about to surrender, 
 when Margaret entered the library, and Judge 
 Houghton repeated the alternatives, as he had 
 set them before the girl. 
 
 " No, Annette," Margaret exclaimed impulsively. " I will not allow 
 you to be prosecuted, even if you insist on keeping this secret from 
 me ; but I beg of you to be magnanimous, and to help me find my 
 aunt. Think how you would feel under the same circumstances." 
 
 Annette looked up. Apparently, she was regarding the stuffed owl 
 on the top of the bookcase ; in reality, she was studying Margaret 
 with intense malice. 
 
 " How do you know that you will thank me, when you have found 
 her? She may not be the grand lady you expect." 
 
 DO YOU WANT TO GO TO 
 PRISON OR TO SWITZER- 
 LAND?" 
 
^ 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Then, so much the more is it a sacred duty on my part. Annette, 
 I shall never blame you, whatever be the result." 
 
 " Suppose she is dead, or moved away, so that I cannot find her? " 
 
 " I shall not blame you for that, either." 
 
 " Then I call you and Judge Houghton to witness that you bring 
 it all on yourself ; that I did not want to undertake this business, but 
 that, between you, you make me do it." 
 
 Annette did not yield from any magnanimity. She had no faith 
 in Margaret's assurance that she would not be imprisoned if she 
 persisted in her refusal. Moreover, she had really decided not to aid 
 in the discovery ; but apparent yielding would extricate her from her 
 present disagreeable position, and give her time to think of some 
 mode of evading the issue. 
 
 So, while Margaret thanked and praised her effusively, she main- 
 tained a stony silence, still simulating an intense interest in the 
 stuffed owl. 
 
 " And now," said Judge Houghton, " that these preliminaries have 
 been satisfactorily settled, let us proceed to the real matter in hand. 
 Will you be so good as to tell us, Annette, all that you know of my 
 granddaughter's great-aunt? In the first place, how did you happen 
 to know my granddaughter's relative ? " 
 
 Annette related the circumstances of her engagement as maid. 
 
 " And what was the lady's name ? " 
 
 Margaret bent forward eagerly. The hated name of Duffey was 
 about to be lifted. Annette saw the intense expectation, and she 
 could not satisfy it at that moment, if her life had depended upon it. 
 
 "No," she exclaimed, a hysterical sob rising in her throat; "not 
 now, not now. I have told enough, I have endured enough. I have 
 promised to help you find her ; but it must be in my own way. Let me 
 go. I can stand no more." And turning abruptly, she left the room. 
 
 Judge Houghton looked after her in astonishment, "Well, this is 
 a most extraordinary young person ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 
ANNETTE'S REVENGE. 
 
 33 
 
 " Annette is peculiar," Margaret answered. " You have gained a 
 great concession ; and it will not do to press her too far. Let her 
 take her own way, and we shall lose nothing by it." 
 
 . But in her own room Annette was going through another of her 
 rages. " I never shall tell her, never ! If it were Miss Boylston, yes ; 
 but Miss Margaret ! I will go to prison first. She thinks, now, that 
 her aunt may be poor and mean. Let her torment herself with that 
 idea. If she only were a beggar, or a cretin ! She says that she 
 would accept her, whatever her condition. I would like to see her 
 put to the test. What would my lady do if she should find that her 
 relatives were of the peasant class ? Her aunt an old crone like my 
 grandmother, living in a den like our chalet? She thinks that she 
 would accept the situation, would not be ashamed of her relations, and 
 would bring the old aunt back with her to America. She would do 
 nothing of the kind. I would ask no sweeter revenge than to see her 
 look of horror on making a discovery like that." 
 
 Annette paused in her monologue. An electrifying idea had sud- 
 denly struck her, and she stood transfixed, then clapped her hands 
 three times over her head, and laughed like a mad woman. She had 
 found her revenge. 
 
34 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GENEVA. 
 
 •• Within the Switzer's varied land, 
 When summer chases high the snow, 
 You'll meet with many a youthful band 
 Of strangers wandering to and fro ; 
 Through hamlet, town, and healing bath, 
 They haste, and rest as chance may call. 
 No day without its mountain path, 
 No path without its waterfall." 
 
 Lord Houghton. 
 
 ALL were surprised, the next day, to see Annette of her own 
 accord ask for another interview, and to hear her volunteer 
 the most helpful information. She said that Margaret's great- 
 aunt was known in Zermatt by the name of Madame Lochwalder; but 
 she, Annette, pretended to suspect that this was an assumed name. 
 Her real one she professed not to know. She felt sure that she was 
 still living at Zermatt, for her uncle had mentioned in his last letter 
 that Madame Lochwalder had bought his mountain chalet, to be fitted 
 up as her summer residence, and had engaged him as her head 
 dairyman. 
 
 A letter was at once dispatched, informing Madame Lochwalder 
 of her new relatives. 
 
 Annette tried her best to get possession of this letter ; but Mar- 
 garet carried it to the post-office and mailed it with her own hands, 
 and all Annette could do was to write a letter of explanation, which 
 she sent by the same mail to her uncle, who was really the son of 
 Madame Lochwalder. 
 
GENEVA. 35 
 
 " I have ascertained," she wrote, " that my employer is the son of 
 your Unele Jacob, who ran away to America so long ago. They have 
 grand notions that Jacob was a nobleman in disguise, which will all 
 be disappointed when they come to see you, with me, as they intend 
 to do. They are wealthy people ; and, though they will drop you all, 
 as if you were hot coals, when they see how poor you are, still they 
 will doubtless leave us the richer for their visit, if only to bribe us not 
 to follow them to America, and disgrace them by proclaiming our 
 relationship. Much can be gained from them, if we only manage well 
 our opportunities. I enclose an answer to a letter which grandmother 
 will receive from these people. I have written as I thought was best. 
 It is well that grandmother cannot write, or she would spoil everything 
 with her goodness of heart. Leave the matter to me. She must not 
 expect any real kindness from these new relatives ; they will despise 
 us, and be ashamed of us." 
 
 It had first occurred to Annette to tell her uncle the truth, and 
 admit that she was playing a clever deception for their own benefit ; 
 but on reflection she was sure that her family were too honest to join 
 her in such a plot, and that even if they had been so unprincipled as 
 to be willing to play their parts, they would be more naturally carried 
 out, and with less risk of detection, if they really believed in the 
 relationship. Madame Lochwalder, it happened, had a brother who 
 had emigrated long before this to America, and this circumstance 
 aided in carrying out her scheme. 
 
 The letter which she had enclosed in her own, and had sent to 
 Switzerland, came back to Margaret in due time. 
 
 It read as follows : — 
 
 " Zermatt, April. 
 
 " My Dear Grand-Niece, — I am rejoiced to find you, after, all 
 these years. I have long felt that my brother must have died, since I 
 no longer heard from him. It is strange that his son did not receive 
 my letters. I am glad that you are coming to Switzerland. You will 
 
36 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 find your relatives glad to- welcome you. Perhaps we shall induce 
 you to remain with us. I long ago decided that if I could ever dis- 
 cover my brother's descendants I would share with them my earthly 
 possessions while I live, and leave them my little estate when I die. 
 I am an old woman, and cannot live many years longer. I trust you 
 will come very soon, to 
 
 " Your affectionate aunt, 
 
 " Margaret Lochwalder." 
 
 This letter decided them all, or would have decided them, if there 
 had been any hesitation about the journey to Switzerland. 
 
 From this time forward everything favored the trip. Cecilia Boyl- 
 ston, a former Vassar girl, who had studied music in Germany after 
 her graduation, and had taught in Boston since her return, had 
 decided, previously to the events just related, to attend the Wagnerian 
 festival to be celebrated that summer at Baireuth. She was readily 
 persuaded that to go via Switzerland was really the most direct route, 
 and gladly joined the party. Grandpa Houghton renewed his youth, 
 and laid in a small library of Alpine literature to be read during the 
 voyage, including all the guide-books on Switzerland, from Wagner to 
 Murray, and accounts of the travels of noted mountaineers. (As these 
 were principally in German, he trusted to having them translated by 
 Margaret.) Several volumes of the Alpine Journal with the doings of 
 the English Alpine Club, Mr. Whymper's account of his long-con- 
 tinued siege of the Matterhorn, Professor Tyndall's " Scrambles," 
 Agassiz for geology, and Ruskin for art, with many other books, were 
 added to the collection. 
 
 Besides the library, he purchased a large stock of articles likely to 
 serve him in the Alps. No prospective bride ever enjoyed the shop- 
 ping necessary for the preparation of her trousseau more than Judge 
 Houghton the buying of his mountain outfit. There was a Kodak 
 camera and other photographing appliances, an Arctic sleeping-bag, a 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 37 
 
 spirit-lamp, and (though he was politically and practically a prohibi- 
 tionist) a flask of spirits, a rifle for shooting chamois, remedies for 
 chilblains, blue-glass spectacles against snow glare, and ice-spurs to 
 steady his footsteps. That he did not make himself as ridiculous an 
 object as Daudet's Tartarin, was simply owing to the fact that he 
 proposed purchasing his alpenstock, pickaxe, rope, lantern, etc., in 
 Geneva. The books were packed in 
 a steamer trunk and slipped under 
 Judge Houghton's berth, for ready 
 reference ; but stormy weather kept 
 him uncomfortable, and the trunk 
 was not once opened during the 
 voyage. 
 
 Grandma Houghton, relying on 
 Margaret's care, awoke to a mild in- 
 terest in the expedition, and knitted 
 her husband a pair of very warm 
 mittens. She also sent his overcoat 
 to the tailor's, to be faced with 
 fur; exhumed from the camphor- 
 chest an ancient cap with ear-tabs, 
 and packed away his gentlemanly 
 beaver, lest, if he had it with him, 
 he might be tempted to wear it in 
 ascending Mont Blanc. The result 
 of this wifely care was that Judge 
 
 Houghton wore his mountain cap on a warm Sunday in Paris, and 
 was the observed of all observers. 
 
 The party made a brief visit in Paris, but, on a bright day in early 
 June, left the city by the Orleans Railroad, via Dijon and Macon, for 
 Geneva. Margaret found this city disappointing, but Lake Leman, or 
 as it is more often called, the Lake of Geneva, was very beautiful. 
 
 GRANDFATHER HOUGHTON IN AL- 
 PINE COSTUME. 
 
38 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " It was Goethe who first said that lakes are the eyes of the landscape ; 1 
 and as our glance, perusing the living traits of a man, is never satisfied 
 till it reaches his eye, so, on the earth, we seek after water, and are 
 not quite content till our attention, long vagrant, rests in peace upon 
 it." Lake Leman is the largest of the Swiss lakes. It has been said 
 of it that, though it lacks the grandeur and sublimity of Lucerne and 
 Thun, and the marvellous color of the Italian lakes, for bright, laugh- 
 ing beauty it is pre-eminent. 
 
 Margaret would gladly have taken the train for the south of Switz- 
 erland, but while they were in this region her grandfather insisted • 
 on making the tour of the lake, and, before doing this, in going through 
 the city in true traveller's style. It would make a paragraph for his 
 proposed lecture in Chickering Hall ; and Margaret found, during the 
 summer, that much was to be sacrificed for this famous lecture. 
 
 She went patiently with him as he made his visits to the watch 
 manufactories, and took copious notes for his lecture, both from actual 
 observation and from printed authorities. She would read these aloud 
 in the evening, and Judge Houghton would express his opinion. 
 
 " Excellent, excellent ! " the old gentleman would comment, after 
 such a reading. * ^'That is just what the members of the Geographical 
 Society- will want to hear. Copy it neatly for me, my dear. I only., 
 wish I had brought my typewriter." 
 
 Their first view of Mont Blanc was obtained at Geneva, with the 
 lake in the foreground. " How delightful it will be to make the 
 ascent ! " Judge Houghton remarked cheerfully. "It does not look 
 nearly as difficult as I imagined." 
 
 But when he took Turner's " Liber Studiorum " from his steamer- 
 trunk that evening, and studied the etching of the Mer de Glace, in 
 which the savage character of the glacier is greatly exaggerated, and 
 the great causeway is represented as a chaos of jagged splinters, he 
 shook his head doubtfully, and hoped there was some easier way. 
 His assurance increased as he bought his alpenstock the next day. 
 
Wm 
 
 ^HfPii 
 
 "MER DE GLACE," MONT BLANC. 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 41 
 
 It was topped with a chamois' horn, and pointed with a sharp iron 
 ferrule. " We will have the names of the mountains you have 
 ascended branded on the staff free of charge, on your return from 
 your tour," the tradesman kindly offered. 
 
 Judge Houghton reflected a moment " We are not certain to 
 come back this way," he said. " I think it would do just as well to 
 mark the names of the peaks I intend to 
 ascend, now." 
 
 " As you please, sir. What mountains do 
 you wish ? The Rigi, I presume. That is 
 quite easy to climb. And the Brunig." 
 
 " Certainly, certainly. But I want some 
 of the celebrated peaks too, — the Jungfrau, 
 and Mont Blanc, and the Matterhorn." 
 
 " Those are rather difficult to ascend," 
 the tradesman replied with a smile. 
 
 " ' What man has done man can do,' " 
 Judge Houghton remarked cheerfully and 
 confidently, with refreshing ignorance of 
 what he was attempting. 
 
 At the Museum of Natural History the 
 stuffed chamois excited his enthusiasm, and 
 he inquired for the taxidermist who had 
 mounted them. " I shall send him all the 
 game I shoot," he remarked, as he made a 
 
 note of the address. " I think I shall make a present of the collec- 
 tion to the New York Museum of Natural History." 
 
 " Suppose it should not prove to be a very large collection, 
 grandpa?" Margaret suggested mischievously, but was glad that the 
 old man did not hear her. It was at the Archaeological Museum, 
 and while examining an ancient boat, one of the relics of the lacrus- 
 tine period, that Margaret met another Vassar girl, Alice Newton, 
 
 ALICE NEWTON. 
 
42 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 an old friend of Cecilia's, and now a missionary to Bulgaria. She had 
 come to Switzerland to meet her mother, who had been recently left 
 a widow, and, having no other near ties in America, had decided to 
 join her missionary daughter, and aid her as a volunteer. 
 
 Alice was delighted to meet Margaret, for Vassar is a pass-word 
 among its alumnas. " I have been living for a week in Geneva with 
 
 mother," she said. " I have a little va- 
 cation, and I do not want to hurry her 
 to Bulgaria. I shall return by way of 
 the Danube. I hope our routes lie the 
 same, way." 
 
 " Unfortunately," said Margaret, "we 
 travel in quite another direction." 
 
 " But it happens very nicely for me," 
 Cecilia explained, "since I must part 
 from Margaret and the rest of the 
 party when they turn southward. I 
 shall be very glad to have you as a 
 travelling companion. We can journey 
 together as far as Bavaria." 
 
 " And we are not going south im- 
 mediately," Grandfather Houghton re- 
 marked confidently. " It would be a 
 shame to give less than a fortnight to 
 this lovely lake and the interesting 
 towns on its shores. So there is no 
 need of talking about our ways separating, at present." 
 
 Grandfather Houghton liked young girls. He enjoyed Cecilia's 
 society, and Alice's calm, pfecid face had made a pleasant impression 
 D upon him. " It's a pity that you are not at our hotel," he added. 
 "There are plenty of people there, but no one that the girls seem to 
 take to particularly. Though that pretty girl in the Hading veil 
 strikes me as rather nice." 
 
 THE GIRL IN THE HADING VEIL. 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 43 
 
 Margaret laughed merrily. " Grandpa is so impressionable," she 
 explained. " The girl in the veil is pretty, but that is all there is to 
 her, — and she has the most dreadful mother. They are Americans 
 living abroad on their in- 
 come. The father, I infer 
 from the mother's interest 
 in business, is no more." 
 
 " How does the widow 
 show her business facul- 
 ty?" Alice asked. 
 
 " She takes the Ameri- 
 can papers and reads the 
 stock quotations while she 
 eats her breakfast, inter- 
 rupting whatever conver- 
 sation may be going on 
 by such exclamations as 
 ' Calumet and Hecla's up ! 
 ered muslin you wanted.' 
 
 CALUMET AND HECLA. 
 
 Now, Betty, you can buy that embroid- 
 Or, ' The land ! Betty. Calumet and 
 Hecla's down. I'm sorry I ordered that music-box.'" 
 
 " You describe her very well," said the Judge. " She's something 
 of a terror, but she's better than the men. She's American, at least, 
 and I can understand her; but my Lord Highnose and I haven't a 
 notion in common." 
 
 "Is that a real name?" Alice asked, much amused. 
 
 " Only a nickname that Margaret has given him. We thought he 
 was an Englishman; for he is deplorably ignorant in regard to 
 America, and seems to take a positive pride in displaying his igno- 
 rance. He asked me, for instance, if Calumet and Hecla were two 
 noted race-horses, or Mississippi steamers! And then it came out C 
 that he hadn't the excuse of being an Englishman ; for he said that 
 he had been absent from the States so long that he had rather lost t 
 
44 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN~ SWITZERLAND. 
 
 the run of affairs. When I told him that Calumet and Hecla was a 
 favorite kind of stock in the market, and that the lady was interested 
 in Wall Street bulls, he said, ' Ah, yes ! a lady drover and cattle raiser. 
 
 How very extraordinary ! ' I am glad 
 that we are soon to see the last of 
 these people." 
 
 The girls assented, and Alice asked 
 if there was really no one at their 
 hotel who was more interesting. 
 
 " Yes," replied the Judge ; " there 
 is a young scientist, whom I rather 
 like. He is on his way to make the 
 ascension of the Jungfrau, and in- 
 tends to scramble about in the Ober- 
 land all summer. He's a Harvard 
 student, and his name is Livingston 
 Walker ; and — ' Speak of an angel ' 
 — the young fellow is entering the 
 Museum now. May I present him ? " 
 The young man proved to be intelligent and courteous. Their 
 conversation drifted to the work and fame of Professor Agrassiz. 
 
 "I am glad to find," said Judge Houghton, "that at least one 
 American scientist is recognized here in Europe. I have found his 
 name several times in the Museum." 
 
 " The Genevese would probably claim him as a Swiss scientist," 
 the young man replied. " He was born at Motier, in the Canton de 
 Vaud, not very far from us, and educated in Swiss and German uni- 
 versities. You know his first work that attracted attention was on the 
 fresh-water fishes of Europe; and I can imagine him as a boy an 
 enthusiastic angler in the Swiss lakes. Later, he extended his re- 
 searches to fossil fishes. He became Professor of Natural History at 
 Neuchatel, on the lake of the same name, north of us. I have just 
 
 LORD HIGHNOSE. 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 45 
 
 returned from a visit to the city. I found the museum rich with col- 
 lections which he had named and classified, and the library, with 
 learned treatises from his pen. Yes ; the Swiss can certainly claim 
 him, though we have also the right to do so. At present, I am making 
 an Agassiz pilgrimage, following his footsteps everywhere in Switzer- 
 land. It is a labor of love, in every way, I assure you." 
 
 " Quite an idea," exclaimed the enthusiastic Judge. " Let us, also, 
 visit Neuchatel, and make an Agassiz pilgrimage." 
 
 Margaret bit her lip. "As we return, grandpa, if you like ; but just 
 now, please remember how impatient I am to reach Zermatt." 
 
 " True, true," assented the old gentleman. " It will do just as well 
 to go there when we come back. And meantime, I have his ' Re- 
 searches on Glaciers' in my trunk, which you may read to me in the 
 evening ; and perhaps I can bring a part of it 
 into my lecture." 
 
 " If you are interested in glaciers," said Mr. 
 Walker, "we may possibly meet on the great 
 
 Hacier of the Aar. 
 
 I shall be making studies 
 
 next month in the vicinity of Agassiz's cabin, 
 which he jokingly called the Hotel Neucha- 
 telois. I shall be happy if I can be of any 
 service." 
 
 Margaret bowed. She did not care to have 
 her grandfather's interest drawn from Zermatt. ^. 
 and she asked if the glaciers at the foot of the 
 Matterhorn were not as accessible as those of 
 the Aar. " More so," replied the young man ; 
 " and Agassiz has mapped them. I mean to 
 work around to that point before the end of 
 
 the season ; and somewhere, I trust, I may have the pleasure of 
 meeting you again." 
 
 The wish was emphatically echoed by the Judge, and the young 
 
 MR. WALKER. 
 
4 6 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 man withdrew, the others passing into the library founded by 
 Bonnivard. 
 
 " He was the true prisoner of Chillon," Alice said, "of whom Byron 
 had not heard when he wrote his poem." 
 
 THE HOTEL NEUCHATELOIS. 
 
 " Bonnivard ? " remarked the Judge questioningly. " I don't quite 
 recollect his history." 
 
 " He was the Prior of St. Victor, you know," Alice replied. " He 
 was a patriot, too, and greatly opposed to the usurpation of the Duke 
 of Savoy ; and the duke had him carried to Chillon, and kept there 
 as a prisoner for six years." 
 
 "How did he ever get out?" 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 47 
 
 " In 1536, the people of Geneva assaulted the castle from the lake, 
 and rescued him." 
 
 " It seems to, me they took a long enough time to make up their 
 minds to do it." This from Margaret. 
 
 "That reminds me," said the Judge, "that we must certainly visit 
 Chillon ; and I think it would be pleasanter to go by the lake. I 
 wonder if there is not some pleasant little place at the other end of 
 Lake Leman which we could make our headquarters, and then take 
 excursions from it to Vevy, 
 
 Clarens, and other interest- 
 ing points." 
 
 " Glion is just the spot," 
 replied Alice. " Mamma and 
 I are going there. The Pen- 
 sion Victoria has been rec- 
 ommended to us as a home- 
 like, charming little hotel, 
 situated on a commanding 
 height, and giving one beau- 
 tiful views in every direction." 
 
 " A good place to practise mountain climbing, eh ! Then, to Glion 
 let us all go. A few days more will suffice for Geneva; then fare- 
 well to Calumet and Hecla." 
 
 The morning of the next day Judge Houghton spent in looking up 
 a music-box. He succeeded in finding a fine one, which played the 
 air of a song by Grieg, beginning, — 
 
 "The winter may perish, the spring pass away," 
 
 which Cecilia sang charmingly, and which was a prime favorite with 
 the Judge. 
 
 After the music-box was purchased, it proved quite an elephant. 
 Judge Houghton would not hear to its being packed in the trunk, and 
 
 THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. 
 
48 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 left to the tender mercies of baggage-smashers ; and it was accordingly 
 wrapped in Cecilia's water-proof, and carried by a shawl-strap. As 
 they walked back to the hotel from the shop, a slight jar set the 
 mechanism in motion ; and people whom they met or passed turned 
 to wonder what was the source of the fairy music. Among these was 
 Mr. Walker, who smilingly asked, " Is this the Banbury Cross lady, 
 of whom it was said that ' she shall have music wherever she goes ' ? " 
 
 " It is disagreeable, is it not, to be made so conspicuous ? " Margaret 
 remarked, as Mr. Walker relieved her of the burden. 
 
 " It is a familiar air," replied the young man, " and the words set to 
 it are very beautiful." 
 
 " I think them very sentimental," Margaret replied, with a toss of 
 her head. " I thought, last night, while Cecilia was singing them with 
 so much apparent feeling, that it was all great nonsense." 
 
 " So," thought Mr. Walker, " our young lady is not the least bit 
 romantic. Well, I like her all the better for it." 
 
 The Judge, however, took up the cudgels in favor of the little love- 
 song. " Mr. Walker must hear Cecilia sing it," he said. " Mrs. and 
 Miss Newton are to dine with us this evening ; and after dinner, if no 
 one else has taken possession of the little music-room, perhaps Mr. 
 Walker will join us there, and we will have some music." 
 
 Mr. Walker responded gratefully to the Judge's invitation, and 
 fortune favored them, in providing some fireworks in the public gar- 
 dens, to which the other guests of the hotel gave their countenance. 
 The hotel parlors were deserted, and the Judge escorted Cecilia to the 
 piano. 
 
 From singing, they fell to chatting of the great names connected 
 with Geneva, of Rousseau, of Voltaire, and Calvin. 
 
 Mrs. Newton, who had a refined, serious face, a typical mother, as 
 Margaret expressed it, was a clergyman's wife, who delighted in her 
 daughter's work. She joined in the conversation enthusiastically and 
 intelligently. 
 
GENEVA. 
 
 49 
 
 " There are many interesting lives that have been influenced by 
 these mountains," she said ; " but to me, Calvin is far the strongest. 
 You know he fled to Switzerland when he embraced Protestantism. 
 It was from Basel that he wrote his famous preface to Francis I., 
 which has been called one of the most memorable documents of the 
 Reformation, ' from its intensity of feeling, its indignant remonstrance, 
 and its pathetic and powerful eloquence.' " % 
 
 " I wonder whether Calvin was really influenced by the ' mountain 
 gloom,' of which Ruskin has so much to say," Cecilia remarked. 
 
 " I think not," Alice replied ; " for his life in Switzerland was spent 
 chiefly here in Geneva, where nature has a very cheerful aspect ; but 
 he may well have drawn his dogmas in relation to ' Irresistible Grace ' 
 and the eternal decrees of God from the irresistible onward sweep of 
 the glaciers and the stability of the everlasting hills." 
 
 " I am not drawn to Calvin as I am to Luther," Cecilia remarked 
 musingly. " He seems to me the Torquemada of the Protestant 
 Church." 
 
 Judge Houghton began to fear that their missionary friends would 
 prove rather heavy companions, but Alice considerately changed the 
 subject. She had that valuable quality which we call tact, the power 
 of adapting herself to her friends, and of making herself beloved by 
 widely differing individuals. " What led you to be so greatly in- 
 terested in Agassiz ? " she asked of Mr. Walker. " You are certainly 
 too young to have been one of his pupils, even at Penikese." 
 
 " It is the regret of my life that I came into the world too late to 
 be his pupil," replied the young man. " But I had the privilege of 
 studying his wonderful collection at Cambridge, and I feel that in that 
 he has left me a rich personal legacy." 
 
 " You are a geologist ? " 
 
 " I am fond of the natural sciences, but they are only a luxury for 
 me. My profession is to be that of a civil engineer ; and part of my 
 business here in Switzerland is to study the passes and the railroad 
 
5o 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 engineering of the Alps, in the hope that I may some time improve 
 upon them in our Rocky Mountains." 
 
 The return of "Calumet and Hecla" from viewing the fireworks 
 reminded Mrs. Newton of the lateness of the hour, and she and Alice 
 took their leave, Mr. Walker escorting them to their pension. 
 
 During the few days that they remained in Geneva, some playful 
 chance was continually throwing the young people together. Did 
 they walk in the gardens, Mr. Walker was sure to appear near the 
 statue of Rousseau. At church, on Sabbath, the sexton oddly showed 
 him into the pew behind them. In the photograph shops, Mr. Walker 
 turned the portfolios. Did they take a drive, Mr. Walker cantered up 
 beside them in the most off-hand manner. 
 
 " This is getting monotonous," Margaret said to Cecilia, on their 
 last evening in Geneva, as the waiter handed them Mr. Walker's card ; 
 " but there is one comfort, there will be an entire change of dramatis 
 personce at Glion." 
 
 Mrs. Newton and Alice dropped in a little later, and the evening 
 was one of the pleasantest which they had passed in Geneva. Was 
 it the sense of coming relief which made Margaret more than usually 
 gay and sparkling, and really courteous to the " Monotonous Walker " ? 
 If so, she must have been a trifle nonplussed when he asked, as he 
 took his leave, if he might be permitted to call on them at Glion, on 
 his way to the Oberland ? The request was addressed to Margaret ; 
 but apparently she did not hear it, and the Judge filled in the 
 awkward pause with a profuse welcome, and Mrs. Newton, in response 
 to a gentle pressure from Alice's hand, added a gracious assurance of 
 favor. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 
 
 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COUNTESS. 
 
 " Glion ? Ah, twenty years, it cuts 
 All meaning from a name ! 
 White houses prank where once were huts ; 
 Glion, but not the same. 
 
 "And yet I know not. All unchanged 
 The turf, the pines, the sky ! 
 The hills in their old order ranged ! 
 The lake with Chillon by ! " 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 OUR travellers were enchanted with their first view of Glion, 
 the picturesque villas and hotels gleaming on the green moun- 
 tain side. A funicular railway carried the guests of the hotels 
 up the steep slope to their destination; but the Judge preferred to 
 begin his mountaineering by walking to the hotel, and Margaret ac- 
 companied him, the rest mounting by rail. It was a longer walk than 
 they had counted on, and the Judge's bandanna came out frequently 
 to wipe his perspiring brow ; but the view was superb, and refreshed 
 their spirits when they paused to rest. There was the Castle of 
 Chillon at their feet, and the sapphire lake dimpling in the breeze, and 
 necked with white sails, the nestling towns and villages on the shore — 
 Montreux, Clarens, and Vevey — all plainly visible. In the direction 
 of the Gorge of the Rhone, the Dent du Midi and the Alps of the 
 Valais lifted white fingers of snow, as one traveller has so well said, 
 " As though the hills themselves were holding up their hands in 
 everlasting homage." 
 
52 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Margaret stood afterwards before many scenes surpassing this in 
 grandeur, but never felt herself more thrilled by pure beauty than 
 now. The Judge was exhilarated, and as happy as a child. " If all 
 Alpine climbing is as easy as this — ," he remarked; "but then, of 
 
 course, it can't be." 
 
 At a sudden turn 
 they came upon a little 
 old woman resting by 
 the roadside. She was 
 dressed plainly, but her 
 garments were of rich 
 material, and she was 
 presided over by a ser- 
 vant in livery, who held 
 a parasol over her, and 
 fanned her assiduously. 
 " Enough, animal ! " 
 she cried spitefully, in 
 French. " You will give 
 me the consumption, with 
 such a current of air. 
 You are worse than an 
 Alpine hurricane, you 
 blacksmith's bellows. 
 Put away that fan, and hand me my lorgnette. Let me see what 
 manner of creatures these are." 
 
 The footman obediently folded the fan and handed his mistress 
 her eye-glasses, and the little woman coolly submitted the Judge and 
 Margaret to a broadside of scrutiny. " A grizzly bear," she remarked, 
 still speaking in French ; " an American bear. I know the species. 
 Hold, he has with him a little savagess. Their air is amiable. I will 
 speak to them." And dropping her eye-glass and totally changing 
 
 THE COUNTESS. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 53 
 
 her manner, she addressed them in odd English, with a slightly foreign 
 accent. 
 
 " Make your father to be seated, my dear young lady. He has ze 
 air to be fatigued. My servant will bring him a glass of water from 
 ze cascade yonder. Animal, approach ze water." (This to the 
 footman, who incontinently fled to execute the errand.) 
 
 Margaret, who had heard and comprehended her soliloquy, would 
 have declined her courtesy and proceeded; but Judge Houghton 
 did not understand French, and, as he was really weary, eagerly 
 availed himself of the proffered civilities, seating himself on the 
 stone parapet beside the stranger, and mopping his glowing coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 " I am very glad to meet any one who speaks English, ma'am," he 
 said, by way of keeping up the conversation ; for Margaret stood at a 
 little distance, apparently absorbed in the view. 
 
 " You are zen English ? " asked the lady. 
 
 " American, ma'am ; American. Allow me to introduce myself. 
 Judge Jonah Houghton of New York." He paused, but the lady did 
 not respond to the introduction by giving her own name, and he 
 continued, " Travelling with my granddaughter. You, I judge, are a 
 foreigner, ma'am; though you speak English like a native." For the 
 moment, Judge Houghton forgot that here in Europe he was the 
 foreigner; but the lady understood him, and bowed politely, though 
 an amused smile twitched her thin lips, while the Judge proceeded 
 serenely, " It is really remarkable, but you are the first foreigner we've 
 really met, — socially, I mean. I don't count storekeepers. Switzer- 
 land seems to be full of Americans. At least, the hotels are. Margaret 
 and I are sick of them. Americans are all very well in America ; but 
 one can see plenty of them at home ; one doesn't come abroad to see 
 them. I mean no disparagement of my own country people when I 
 say it. They may be a great deal more enlightened than foreigners ; 
 but when we come abroad we come to study foreigners, their ways and 
 
54 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 their manners, even if they are not up to our own, and that is why I 
 am so glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am." 
 
 Margaret felt that the conversation needed interruption, and, step- 
 ping forward, remarked on the beauty of the view. " It is lufly, very 
 lufly," said the lady. "I know it well; for I have been here before. 
 Eighteen years ago since I was in Switzerland. You can well com- 
 prehend zat it has changed. Zere was no funicular railway zen. 
 We rode to ze top in ze omnibus, or we walked. I always walked. 
 So, to revive ze old time, I have walked to-day. But alas ! I have 
 
 changed also. I am not so spry as 
 once. Better I had gone in ze wagon 
 of ze train, with Lajos, for it has proved 
 a great waste of perspiration. Come, 
 Konrad. I have reposed myself, and 
 I will not make zese kind people to 
 wait longer. En route / " 
 
 The footman gave her his arm, and 
 they all walked on together. It seemed 
 odd to Margaret to hear her address 
 the servant as Konrad; she had called 
 him " animal " so often, that it almost 
 seemed that this must be his Christian 
 
 LAJOS. 
 
 name. 
 
 But though violent of temper, this strange old woman was not 
 uninteresting, and Margaret admired her intelligence. She quoted 
 from Rousseau, and Byron's lines on Clarens, as the Judge pointed 
 out the town. 
 
 " Have you anyzing so beautiful as zat by an American writer ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " I think Aldrich's ' Alpine Picture ' more beautiful," Margaret 
 replied. And, as the lady knew of neither the poet nor the poem, she 
 repeated it for her. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 55 
 
 " Stand here and look, and softly hold your breath, 
 Lest the vast avalanche come crashing down ! 
 How many miles away is yonder town, 
 Set flower-wise in the valley ? Far beneath, 
 A scimitar half drawn from out its sheath, 
 The river curves through meadows newly mown. 
 The ancient water-courses all are strown 
 With drifts of snow, fantastic wreath on wreath. 
 And peak on peak against the turquoise blue, 
 The Alps like towering campanilis stand, 
 Wondrous, with pinnacles of frozen rain, 
 Silvery, crystal, like the prism in hue. 
 O tell me, love, if this be Switzerland, 
 Or is it but the frost-work on the pane?" 
 
 The little woman listened attentively, and then remarked half to 
 herself, " You are fond of poetry. Ah ! yes ; you are at ze romantic 
 period. You have perhaps eighteen years. It must be passed through. 
 It does not always make harm. I am not of zose who would repress 
 it. One might as well try to repress ze chicken-pox. It can be 
 done, but it. is bad for ze liver; and when ze eruption of poetry is 
 driven in, it is bad for ze heart. Much better you go through wiz 
 zese infantile diseases at ze proper time. Lajos has never had ze 
 measles. I tremble for him if he should contract zem now. He has 
 never had a romance in his youth. Zink of the virulence wiz which 
 it may attack him in his manhood. You see, my dear, Lajos is my 
 nephew; zat is, not my true nephew. He is ze nephew to my 
 husband, who is dead. We are all zere is to each other. He is so 
 devoted to me, he will do anyzing I ask of him. He would have 
 climbed ze mountain wiz me ; but I said, ' Lajos, you have had 
 enough of mountains.' He joined the Russian army, and went over 
 ze Balkans with General Skobeleff. He was wounded in ze leg, 
 and nursed in a hospital of ze Red Cross, by some Americans. 
 I have felt kindly to Americans ever since. But all ze same, he 
 
56 » THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 cannot walk well, or dance. It is hard for him. He has changed 
 since zat campaign. He is not ze same lively, gay of heart boy as 
 once." 
 
 By the time that they had climbed the mountain and reached the 
 hotel, they all felt very well acquainted. 
 
 " I shall see you again, my dear," said the little woman as they 
 separated at the door, and she took the arm of a hollow-cheeked, grave 
 man, with an immense mustache. It was difficult to imagine that this 
 was her " boy " Lajos ; but he led the strange little lady toward Alice, 
 saying as he did so, " I wish, my aunt, to present you to Mrs. Newton, 
 and to Miss Newton, to whose kind care while in the hospital I believe 
 I owe my life." 
 
 " He is the Count Krajova," Alice explained afterwards. " He was 
 taken prisoner by the Turks toward the last of the war, spared on 
 account of his high rank, and sent to Lady Strangford's hospital, where 
 I was assisting. I helped nurse him until the Russians took Kezanlik, 
 when he was transferred to the Red Cross hospital. He recognized 
 me in the cars as we rode up, and came over to see us at once, and 
 inquired for the mission and the girls' school, of which I had told him 
 when he asked how it happened that an American girl had drifted so 
 far from home." 
 
 "I remember your writing about him," said Mrs. Newton. 
 
 " Did I mention him ? " Alice asked. " That is odd, for he was 
 with us only a short time ; but he was very gentlemanly. He was more 
 than that, he was heroic in his patient endurance." 
 
 " At last," said Judge Houghton, as he inscribed his name in the 
 hotel register, and tried in vain to make out those of the Austrians 
 which preceded it, " at last we have escaped from our co-patriots." 
 But as he spoke, a girlish voice from the. reading-room exclaimed in 
 triumph, " Ma, Ma ; we can stay in Switzerland all summer. Calumet 
 and _Hecla is up! " 
 
 The Judge started. " They are some American ladies," said the 
 
THE COUNTESS. 
 
 57 
 
 clerk, " who arrived to-day from Geneva. They came by rail. Would 
 you like to meet them ? " 
 
 " Far be it from me," replied the Judge ; and he impressed on the 
 mind of the clerk their especial desire during their stay to avoid the 
 society of all Americans. 
 
 " I'll do the best I can, sir," replied the obliging clerk; "but we are 
 quite overrun with them this summer." 
 
 The Judge was weary, and retired early; but as the girls sat by 
 their open window looking down at the rakish lateen sails of the 
 fishing craft on the lake, a maid 
 appeared, dressed in the pretty 
 costume of the country, and 
 bringing an invitation from the 
 Countess Krajova inviting the 
 American party to drive with 
 her to Vevey the next day. 
 
 The invitation was accepted, 
 and the party made the excur- 
 sion in two carriages. 
 
 It was a* day to be marked 
 with a white stone, as nearly all 
 days are in the beautiful Pays 
 de Vaud. They drove through 
 
 the lovely town of Montreux, through woods and vineyards, over 
 streams and along the borders of the lake, catching glimpses of the 
 Plejaden, the Moleson, and the Cubli mountains, with new combi- 
 nations of the familiar Dent de Jaman and Dent du Midi. 
 
 " It is one pity it is not ze autumn," said the countess ; " for zen we 
 could see ze Fete of ze Abbaye des Vignerons." 
 
 " What is that ? " asked the Judge. " Some church festival ? " 
 
 " On ze contrarie," replied the lady, "it is one survive of ze Pagan- 
 ism celebrate by ze vine-dresser in honor of Bacchus. It is now 
 
 "calumet and hecla is up! 
 
58 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IJV SWITZERLAND. 
 
 twenty years zat I have not seen it. Such so great pleasure ! It 
 was worth to be one Pagan. Ze town was so full of ze spectator 
 from effery country of Europe zat it was unpossible zere could come 
 more. Ze window, ze balcony, ze roof, even ze tree, was rent for a 
 price to preak ze heart. Only ze American could afford ze best place. 
 Ze aristocracy of Europe content himself to view zat processions from 
 
 ze barn, from ze wagon of hay. I have 
 accommodate myself, wiz ze Countess 
 Esterhazy, on ze roof of a smissy 
 [smithy]. We could not else. We 
 were bake by ze sun, and robe was 
 decorate wiz ze tar and ze cinder, — 
 but all zat signify to us nossing, we 
 have excellent view to ze procession." 
 " They will manage it better this 
 year, aunt," said Lajos. " Parisian art- 
 ists are designing the tableaux, which 
 are to be superb ; and the public will 
 be provided for more commodiously." 
 " It cannot be more beautiful as 
 then," said the countess. " Do you 
 know if ze Goddess of Spring shall 
 be ze same pretty peasant girl of 
 Clarens who took ze part when I was 
 here ? Ze Prince of Metternich made her a present of a pracelet 
 of diamond." 
 
 " Your peasant beauty must be a buxom dame by this time, aunt. 
 You forget the changes that Time works." 
 
 " Ah ! malicious one ; it is true. You could not believe I was 
 beautiful also. I wore a green satin pelisse ; and my friend Margaret 
 du Fais, one of pink, garnished wiz ze down of swan. We were ze 
 toast of ze gentlemen ; and she is dead, ze beloved one." 
 
 PEASANT WAITRESS. 
 
THE DENT DU MIDI FROM ABOVE THE LAKE OF GENEVA. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 6 1 
 
 " But the spectacle, aunt," said Lajos, anxious to lead her thoughts 
 from sad personal recollections. 
 
 " Ah ! ze spectacle was magnifique. I can see it all. First ze 
 train of ze Goddess of Spring; ze gardeners and gardeneresses wiz 
 zare tools, ze shepherd and shepherdesses wiz zare sheeps, ze herds- 
 men wiz zare catties, all shouting ze Ranz des vaches. Oh ! it was 
 heavenly beautiful ! And ze Goddess of Summer, in a wagon orna- 
 mented of corns. Zen come some children carrying a cage of bees, 
 singing alouds. And ze laborer of autumn ; ze haymakers wiz zare 
 pitchforks, ze mowers wiz scys, ze gleaners wiz sheafs, and ze vintagers 
 wiz ze cluster of grape, ze faun, ze Bacchante, and ze people mytholo- 
 gique, dressed in skin of leopard and garlands, dancing wiz great 
 leaps. Ze pipes, ze flutes, ze kettledrum, ze fiddle, making music 
 forte fortissimo ! " 
 
 The countess' description was so spirited that the volatile Judge 
 was greatly interested. " Let us remain until the fete," he exclaimed, 
 forgetful of all other plans. 
 
 " Rather, let us try to meet here again in the autumn," suggested 
 Lajos. 
 
 " Excellent, excellent," said the countess. " It is fully three months 
 until ze time of ze fete. One could not exist at Glion so long. It 
 would be a century of ennui." 
 
 "And even if it were the most interesting place in the world," 
 added Margaret, " we would all be very tired of one another." 
 
 "You would all weary of me," replied the countess; "but Lajos is 
 an angel. If it were not so he could not have borne wiz me all zese 
 years." It was plainly to be seen that the young man was her idol, 
 and that she desired to have him admired by all, and especially by 
 Margaret, to whom she seemed to have taken a strong liking. Mar- 
 garet was gratified by her attentions ; for she recognized the com- 
 pliment which they implied, coming as they did from a lady of 
 rank, and Margaret was not insensible to social distinction ; but she 
 
62 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 did not reciprocate the affection offered her, for, in spite of her 
 freakish kindness to Margaret and her doting fondness for her nephew, 
 the countess was not an amiable woman. She did not scruple to fly 
 into a rage over very little matters with her domestics, and to berate 
 them in what seemed to Margaret a very unladylike manner. On 
 unpacking the lunch hamper for their picnic on the border of the 
 lake, it was discovered that one of the Bohemian glass decanters was 
 broken, and the angry countess did not hesitate to give the unoffend- 
 ing maid who informed her of the fact a smart slap on the face. 
 Lajos presently gave the girl a fee; but the revengeful look did not 
 die out with the gift, and though the countess chatted merrily as 
 though nothing unusual had happened, a restraint seemed to have 
 fallen upon the spirits of the party. 
 
 When the wine was passed, and the girls declined it, the countess 
 seemed to think that they did so because they feared that, one bottle 
 having been broken, there would not be a sufficient quantity for all. 
 
 It was with great difficulty that Margaret explained to her that 
 American girls did not drink wine. 
 
 " So ! " she exclaimed. " But you, Miss Newton, you have in 
 Europe been long enough to learn our customs." When Alice, also, 
 resolutely begged to be excused, the countess exclaimed spitefully, 
 " You are one leetle frog ! " 
 
 They drove back to the hotel by a different route, with the sunset 
 flushing the lake. Lajos, who rode with the young ladies, trolled 
 German student songs in a rich baritone voice, and the young ladies 
 responded with Vassar glees. " If one might ride and sing forever," 
 said the young man in an impersonal manner, but directing his gaze 
 at Alice. " But, alas, my aunt leaves Glion soon, for Austria, and I 
 must accompany her." The words did not compromise him, but the 
 tone said, " I am bound hand and foot to that woman ; and no one 
 knows what slavery it is." 
 
 The next day was the Sabbath, and the Americans attended service 
 at the little church of Montreux. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 63 
 
 " ' I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,' " Cecilia said softly, as 
 they came out of the church door, and saw the beautiful Dent du 
 Midi gleaming white in the distance. Lajos was on the terrace, wait- 
 ing to walk home with them, and apparently not minding the climb 
 at all. 
 
 " What a wonderful country this beautiful Pays de Vaud is ! " Alice 
 remarked softly. " I do not wonder that Agassiz grew near to Nature's 
 heart here. Do you remember Longfellow's poem to him on his 
 fiftieth birthday ? I forgot to ask Mr. Walker if he was familiar with 
 it; but of course he is." 
 
 " Can you repeat it ? " Margaret asked ; and as they climbed the 
 hill together, Margaret repeated, — 
 
 " It was fifty years ago, 
 
 In the pleasant month of May, 
 In the beautiful Pays du Vaud, 
 A child in its cradle lay. 
 
 " And Nature, the old nurse, took 
 The child upon her keee, 
 Saying, ' Here is a story book 
 Thy Father has written for thee. 
 
 " ' Come, wander with me,' she said, 
 ' Into regions yet untrod, 
 And read what is still unread 
 In the manuscripts of God.' 
 
 " And he wandered away and away, 
 With Nature, the dear old nurse, 
 Who sang to him every day 
 The rhymes of the universe. 
 
 " And whenever the way seemed long, 
 Or his heart began to fail, 
 She would sing a more wonderful song, 
 Or tell a more marvellous tale. 
 
64 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " And at times he hears in his dreams 
 The Ranz des Vaches of old, 
 And the rush of mountain streams 
 From glaciers clear and cold. 
 
 " And the mother at home says, ' Hark, 
 For his voice I listen and yearn; 
 It is growing late and dark, 
 
 And my boy does not return.' " 
 
 " It is indeed beautiful," said Lajos. " And you say that this was 
 written to a Swiss scientist by your great poet Longfellow ? But who 
 is the Mr. Walker of whom you just spoke ? " 
 
 " He is a young engineer whom we met in Geneva," Alice replied. 
 " He has come to Switzerland to study the passes ; but he is also 
 much interested in Agassiz." 
 
 "Napoleon was the great engineer of Switzerland," Lajos as- 
 serted. " He should study the campaigns of Napoleon. I have 
 myself studied engineering. That was a heavy bit of it we did in 
 crossing the Balkans. I consider Prince TsertelefT one of our greatest 
 military engineers. I helped him make the Hainkoi Pass practicable. 
 Alas ! there is no more military engineering for me." And he leaned 
 heavily on his cane. 
 
 " I would like, however, to meet this friend of yours, and talk over 
 engineering with him. I used to think of following up Napoleon's 
 military works in the Alps, and making a thorough study of them ; 
 but I fear I shall never do even that." 
 
 " Mr. Walker may come to Glion," Alice replied ; " and if so, I have 
 no doubt that he will consider it a privilege to meet you. It is very 
 kind of you to propose it. I am sure he deserves your interest." 
 
 Both Lajos and Margaret regarded Alice keenly, and each won- 
 dered how far she might be interested in the career of this young 
 engineer; but Alice, utterly unconscious of their thought, and with 
 nothing but simple friendship in her heart for Mr. Walker, continued 
 
THE COUNTESS. 
 
 65 
 
 the conversation. " Could you not go over most of the passes in a 
 carriage ? " she asked. 
 
 " The Simplon, certainly," he replied ; " and doubtless the others. 
 But one could not study them to the best advantage in that way ; and 
 I wanted to write an exhaustive work on the subject." 
 
 " Perhaps Mr. Walker could aid you in your observations, and 
 enable you to carry out your plan. He may be able to be really 
 useful to you; and if so, I shall be 
 very glad." 
 
 " At all events, let me know when 
 he appears," said Lajos. 
 
 That evening Konrad appeared with 
 another invitation from Madame. This 
 time it was for a social game of cards. 
 The girls looked at each other in 
 dismay. 
 
 " Tell her," said Margaret, impul- 
 sively, " that we don't play cards Sun- 
 day night." 
 
 " Wait a moment, dear," said Alice. 
 " As mamma is our chaperoite, would it 
 not be better for her to send a note of 
 explanation ? " 
 
 This was accordingly done, the countess immediately deferring the 
 party until the next evening. 
 
 She was enthroned in a high-backed chair as they entered, indus- 
 triously reading from a French novel ; but she dropped the book, and 
 greeted them vivaciously. 
 
 " We will play Lansquenet," she said ; " for so we shall not limit 
 ourself at four." And she led the way to a table on which she had 
 already distributed the cards. Margaret was thunderstruck to see a 
 roll of silver pieces at each place. 
 
 THE COUNTESS ENTHRONED. 
 
66 THREE VASSAR GIRLS /AT SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " We are not to play for money ! " she exclaimed. " I thought that 
 was against the law." 
 
 " It is against the law to keep a public gambling house," Lajos 
 explained ; " but the police do not trouble themselves with an innocent 
 little amusement like this. We never play for high stakes, and it adds 
 a zest to the game." 
 
 " But we never play for money in America," Alice replied, laying 
 down her cards. 
 
 " Avaricious one ! " exclaimed the countess ; " do you not see zat I 
 have provide ze silver? You lose nossing. On contrary, you shall 
 keep your gains." 
 
 " It is not that," Alice explained bravely. " It is the principle of 
 the thing. We think it wrong." 
 
 The countess flushed angrily. " Bigote ! " she exclaimed, turning 
 abruptly from the table, and flouncing out of the room. Alice's eyes 
 shone suspiciously, and Lajos gave her a quick glance of sympathy, 
 but refrained from speaking to her, for he saw that a word now would 
 unloose the tears. He rose at once, and, begging that they might be 
 favored with some music, escorted Cecilia to the piano ; and Cecilia 
 played a merrier selection than was her wont, a Hungarian dance of 
 Rubenstein's. The countess heard it, in the depths of her boudoir. 
 It was one of her favorites, and she could not resist its contagion. 
 She flew in, all animation, exclaiming, " We dance, we dance," and, 
 catching Margaret about the waist, spun her around the room until 
 she was breathless. 
 
 When the dance ceased, Margaret noticed that Lajos had led Alice 
 out upon the balcony, and was talking with her in the moonlight. 
 " You are right," he said. " I have seen the evils of gaming in the 
 army. You have taught me a lesson. I will never play for money 
 again." 
 
 Konrad came in with refreshments, — little cakes, and glasses of 
 "limonad." The countess had evidently regarded the prejudices of 
 
THE COUNTESS. 6j 
 
 her guests, though she herself declined the beverage, declaring it made 
 her shiver to think of it. 
 
 So a week passed, rendering them all better and better acquainted 
 with each other's good qualities and faults ; for the latter come out 
 with even more startling distinctness during travel than at home. 
 
 Annette was the only one of the party who had not yet seen the 
 Countess Krajova ; but the name and title was unfamiliar to her, and 
 she had as yet no suspicion that the baroness whom she had known 
 years ago might in the interval have married a count, and be known 
 by her husband's name and title. 
 
 The culmination of their intercourse occurred a few days after 
 this. Alice and Margaret were sitting alone one afternoon, when 
 Konrad came running to their room, exclaiming, " The countess ! 
 The countess! She has poisoned herself!" 
 
 " What ? On purpose ? " Alice asked. 
 
 " No. She have one dreadful headache, and she take some medi- 
 cine. And now I tink she die." 
 
 " Where is Lajos ? " asked Alice. 
 
 " I know not. He have depart." 
 
 " Then, run for a physician, and we will go to her meantime." 
 Alice had had experience in the hospital ; but Margaret was younger, 
 and knew nothing of medicine. She followed Alice, feeling all the 
 time as if she were in a dream. The countess lay upon a couch, her 
 face distorted, her form bent, and her fingers contracted, as though 
 suddenly frozen stiff in the midst of a convulsion. 
 
 Alice stepped quickly to the dressing-table. The vial labelled 
 Nux Vomica from which she had taken the medicine stood uncorked, 
 a teaspoon beside it. 
 
 " It is what you call homoeopathic medicine," said the trembling 
 maid. " That never hurt anybody." 
 
 Alice read the printed direction. " Mix four drops of the tincture 
 in a third of a glass of water, and take one teaspoonful at each dose." 
 
68 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 But the countess had taken one teaspoonful of the tincture, wash- 
 ing; it down with a third of a glass of water. 
 
 " That make all the same, is it not ? " asked the maid. 
 " Hardly," replied Alice. " It is deadly poison. She has taken 
 enough to kill her. The antidote is tannic acid ; and the pharmacist's 
 is so far away that we can never get it here in time. We can only 
 give an emetic. Quick ! Get me some mustard and hot water." 
 
 The maid brought the mixture. " We can never make her take 
 
 it," said Margaret. " Her teeth are 
 ground tightly together. I believe she 
 has lockjaw." 
 
 " The entomologist up-stairs must 
 have chloroform," replied Alice. " Run 
 and ask him for some. A sniff of it 
 will make the muscles relax, and then 
 she can open her mouth and take the 
 medicine." 
 
 Margaret sped up to the old ento- 
 mologist's room, but he was away 
 
 among the hills chasing Alpine but- 
 terflies. His door was locked, but she 
 bethought her suddenly of Annette's 
 skeleton key. Down-stairs again, to 
 explain the matter to Annette, who 
 opened the door with a triumphant 
 manner which said plainly, " Now, you see, yourself, the good of 
 having a brother who is a locksmith, and can commit burglary with- 
 out a scruple, when it serves your purpose." 
 
 Margaret, having first carried down a bottle of glue, which would 
 not have had a relaxing tendency, at last found the chloroform in 
 the old gentleman's dressing-case. What a time they had afterwards, 
 explaining the burglary to the deaf old entomologist, and how pleased 
 
 '//// 
 
 THE ENTOMOLOGIST RECEIVES THE 
 APOLOGY. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 69 
 
 he was that his chloroform had the desired effect ! " And now," said 
 Alice, " if I only had the tannic acid ! " 
 
 Margaret's wits slowly came to her. " Alice, they use tannic acid 
 in ink, do they not ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but combined with iron. Ink would not serve the purpose." 
 
 " I know it. But grandpa was complaining of the ink we have 
 here, and bought some chemicals the other day, to make some for his 
 precious lecture ; and I am sure that he has not used them yet." 
 And Margaret flew to her grandfather's room, returning with the 
 tannic acid, and bringing Annette to assist. Annette, however, was 
 of little service. " Hand me the smelling-salts," Alice had said. 
 " Look on the dressing-table. You surely will find a vinaigrette." 
 
 Annette fumbled among the articles displayed on the dainty toilet- 
 table, her gaze fixed on a well-known crest on the silver vinaigrette, — 
 a mailed hand waving a firebrand. 
 
 " Quick, Annette ; the vinaigrette ! She is fainting," exclaimed 
 Margaret. "You cannot find it? Why, girl! it is in your hand," 
 Annette turned, and gave the countess one long, terrified stare. The 
 features were unfamiliar, but years might have changed them. She 
 dared not await her return to consciousness ; and when Margaret, 
 whose hand had been extended for the smelling-salts, looked up impa- 
 tiently, Annette was gone. The girls continued their efforts until the 
 arrival of the physician, who listened to what they had done, gave 
 some remedies, and congratulated them warmly. " You have saved 
 the lady's life," he said. " But for your prompt action, I should have 
 arrived too late." Lajos, who entered at this moment, clasped Alice's 
 hand. " This is like you," he said simply. 
 
 It was several days before the countess fully recovered ; but, when 
 told of what had happened, she perversely insisted on giving all the 
 credit to Margaret. It was in vain that Margaret herself disclaimed 
 the merit, explaining that she only followed Alice's directions, and 
 that without her she would not have known what to do. The countess 
 
JO THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 persisted in attributing Margaret's statement of the fact to her own 
 modesty. 
 
 When Lajos rather indignantly urged that Alice's participation in 
 the rescue should not be ignored, the countess grudgingly accorded 
 her an expression of her gratitude. It was evident that she had 
 contracted an unreasoning prejudice toward Alice and an equally 
 unfounded fondness for Margaret. She could not bear, now, to allow 
 a single day to pass without seeing her. She made her handsome 
 presents, — an exquisitely embroidered Swiss muslin dress, and a pretty 
 necklace of edelweiss blossom in frosted silver. Her manner softened 
 appreciably. She had been very near death, and had felt the spray of 
 that unknown sea upon her face. Her eyes assumed a wistful expres- 
 sion. They followed Margaret beseechingly. Her fondness wearied 
 Margaret, who was not then as unselfish as she afterward became. 
 It was not altogether pleasant to read continually to an invalid instead 
 of roaming freely with the others. And when the countess was able 
 to join them in their excursions it was just a little wearying to have 
 her claw-like hand forever resting upon her arm, to adapt her steps 
 to the cramped hobble of her companion, and to respond to her ques- 
 tions, while the Judge, tripping on in advance, laughed heartily at Ce- 
 cilia's witticisms, which Margaret could not hear, and Alice and Lajos 
 loitered in the rear, evidently well content with each other's company. 
 
 Annette, too, increased Margaret's impatience to proceed to Zer- 
 matt by letting fall fascinating hints and suggestions in regard to 
 her great-aunt. She threw every possible obstacle in the way of 
 Margaret's meeting with the countess, or accepting her invitations, — 
 hiding her gloves, disclosing stains and rents at the last moment, when 
 quite too late to remedy defects. She was in a fever of anxiety to be 
 off, and of apprehension of detection, and she longed for some event 
 which would break up this, to her, very undesirable intimacy. None 
 of her plots to hasten the departure succeeded ; but the event came 
 from an entirely unexpected quarter. 
 
THE COUNTESS. 7 1 
 
 One evening, as the carriage of the countess halted at the door of 
 the hotel, after an excursion to the Castle of Chillon, the clerk met the 
 Judge with the well-pleased air of a man who has done his duty and 
 deserves appreciation. " An American has inquired for you," he 
 announced ; " and I told him that you left special directions that no 
 Americans would be received. He said he had made your acquaint- 
 ance at Geneva, and you expected to meet him again. I told him 
 that was probably the reason you were so particular in your orders to 
 me. He flushed as red as a beet, and said, ' Oh ! very well,' and went 
 away." 
 
 " Do you remember his name ? " Margaret asked. 
 
 " It was Walker," replied the clerk. " I remember that very well ; 
 for I thought it very appropriate, he walked so well and so fast. He 
 went straight down the Mountain to Montreux, where he has doubt- 
 less lodged at the inn, and we have lost a guest; but I don't mind 
 that, since I have done a service to Monsieur and the young ladies." 
 
 " You took me a little too seriously, my friend," said the Judge. 
 " I had no idea that Mr. Walker was coming in this direction, and I 
 would like very much to see him." 
 
 The three girls joined in a chorus of, " What a pity ! " and, " I trust 
 he is not greatly offended," as they mounted the stairs. 
 
 Margaret decided that an apology was due him; and the Judge 
 wrote a kind letter, which, however, could not be sent until the morn- 
 ing. Livingston Walker had stepped aside, when half-way down the 
 mountain, to allow the carriages to roll by, and, though unrecognized 
 himself, had heard Margaret's gay laugh ring out, and had noticed 
 that a distinguished-looking foreigner sat beside her. 
 
 Stung by the rebuff which he had just received, he decided rashly 
 that it must have been meant for him personally by Margaret. 
 
 "She is a heartless schemer," he said to himself; "her giddy head 
 turned by the attentions of a noble of the fifth rank. It serves me 
 right for stopping over, on my way, to accept her grandfather's invi- 
 tation. I shall know better in future." 
 
7 2 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 
 
 The clouds are on the Oberland, 
 
 The Jungfrau snows look faint and far ; 
 But bright are these green fields at hand, 
 
 And through those fields comes down the Aar ; 
 And from the blue twin lakes it comes, 
 
 Flows by the town, the churchyard fair, 
 And 'neath the garden- walk it hums, 
 
 The house, — and is my Marguerite there ? 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 JUDGE HOUGHTON, who was sorry for the affront which his 
 friend had received, decided to take an early morning walk the 
 next day, and make suitable explanations. He was, therefore, 
 not a little disappointed to find that Livingston Walker had just left 
 for Thun, doubtless on his way to the Jungfrau, the glacier of the 
 Aar. A great desire to ascend the mountain in his company came 
 over Judge Houghton. With his recent walks had come the convic- 
 tion that mountaineering was not the easy matter which he had imag- 
 ined, and he could not help thinking that the company of such a 
 vigorous young climber would be of immense assistance to him. If 
 only he could induce Margaret to deflect from her route long enough 
 to make this ascension, they might easily overtake Mr. Walker. He 
 returned to the hotel to find the girls discussing their plans at the 
 breakfast-table. 
 
 Cecilia and Alice had decided that, much as they were enjoying 
 their delightful stay at Glion, they could not remain longer. Mrs. 
 Newton would accompany them on their Eastern journey as far as 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 7 3 
 
 Lucerne, and they were endeavoring to persuade Margaret to make 
 the same decision. 
 
 Margaret, who was weary of the countess and of Glion, was quite 
 ready to leave, but felt that she must turn her face toward Zermatt. 
 "What do you say, grandpa? " she asked, appealing to Judge Houghton. 
 
 " I fancy the aunt will keep a few weeks longer," replied the old 
 man eagerly. " I would like nothing better than to visit Lucerne. It 
 is the William Tell region, and I want that for my lecture. Besides, 
 the Jungfrau is exactly on the way. We can obtain a fine view of it 
 from Interlaken." 
 
 The old gentleman wisely said nothing of his hope of meeting Mr. 
 Walker, rightly thinking that for Margaret this would be no argument 
 in favor of the plan. 
 
 Margaret consented to the wishes of the others, only stipulating 
 that in a week's time she should proceed to Zermatt. 
 
 " Then let us go at once ! " exclaimed Judge Houghton. " Off, 
 girls, and pack your trunks, while I look up the route." 
 
 " How disappointed the countess will be ! " Alice remarked. " See 
 what lovely flowers she has sent us," and Alice pointed to a superb 
 bouquet of Alpine roses or rhododendrons, which, however, bore the 
 card of Lajos. 
 
 "Ah, yes! the poor countess," Margaret remarked carelessly, "and 
 poor Lajos as well ; but they cannot expect us to remain with them 
 the rest of our natural lives." 
 
 " It seems to me that is exactly what they do expect," said Mrs. 
 Newton ; " and I feel that it is quite time that we separated." 
 
 Great was the dismay of the countess when our travellers bade her 
 farewell. " Lucerne ! " she exclaimed. " For why do you remove 
 yourself to Lucerne ? Is it not beautiful enough here ? " 
 
 " It is beautiful, dear countess ; but we must all go on, Alice to her 
 mission, Cecilia to Baireuth, and I to my relatives." 
 
 "Fiddlestick!" replied the amiable lady, " zat is all as nonsense. 
 
74 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 You must visit me at my own home ; you must go back wiz me to 
 Hungary." 
 
 It was with great difficulty that Alice persuaded her that this was 
 impossible for the present, and it was only by promising that she 
 would try to visit her before returning to America that the countess 
 was induced to relinquish her hold upon her. Lajos had gone for a 
 long tramp up the Rhone valley, and did not share in the leave-taking. 
 
 The preparations for departure were hastily made. It had been 
 decided to drive over the Col de Jaman to Thun, and then to take the 
 steamer across the lake to Interlaken. The carriage was at the door 
 in an hour's time ; and all took their places in high good humor, with 
 the exception of Alice, who was a little pensive. Annette mounted 
 to her seat beside the driver in a tremor of delight. She did not like 
 the postponement of their visit to Zermatt, but, anything was better 
 than remaining longer under the same roof with this mysterious 
 woman who might prove to be even the great-aunt herself. 
 
 In her trepidation she had written to her Uncle Jakob Lochwalder, 
 asking him to inquire at The RifTel Hotel, and secure for her any in- 
 formation which could be obtained in reference to the Baroness Du Fais. 
 
 She would have felt even less assured if she had known that the 
 countess had invited Margaret to visit her; and that she was even 
 now determining that Lucerne would be a pleasant locality to visit on 
 their return to Austria, a decision in which her nephew was certain 
 to concur. 
 
 Judge Houghton's plot in the meantime was crowned with success, 
 and the girls were greatly surprised as they took the steamer at Thun 
 on the following day to meet Mr. Livingston Walker. Their surprise 
 was mutual, and the Judge's delight unbounded. The discourtesy of 
 the hotel clerk was explained; and all placed their camp-stools on 
 deck, and enjoyed the lovely scenery of the lake in company. The 
 day was perfect, good humor reigned. The young man's spirits rose, 
 and his grievance vanished. He pointed and named out the castles 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 75 
 
 on the shore as they passed them, — Chartreuse, Hunech, and that of 
 Count de Portales. At Spiez the great mountains of the Oberland 
 came into view; the Eiger, or giant, Monch, or monk, and the Jung- 
 frau, the virgin, grouped themselves in front, and the Faulhorn and 
 Schreckhorn on the left. They had seen no such peaks as these 
 hitherto, and exclamations of admiration were uttered on every side. 
 Judge Houghton edged his camp-stool close to Mr. Walker's, and con- 
 fided, " I dragged them all away from Glion, much against their will, 
 simply because I was determined to ascend the Jungfrau with you." 
 
 " What, you wish the ladies to ascend the Jungfrau ? " 
 
 " No, no ; of course not. They are not equal to it ; but it is one of 
 the things which I came to Switzerland to do," and he pointed to the 
 name on his alpenstock. " I must not give up the battle without a 
 blow. The ladies will wait for us at Interlaken." 
 
 Mr. Walker was embarrassed. It was hard to tell this enthusiastic 
 old gentleman that the climb was too difficult for him, but it was 
 plainly his duty to dissuade him from the undertaking. He tried his 
 best to do so, but Judge Houghton was not to be dissuaded. " I am 
 quite as well able to do it as you," he asserted with some warmth. 
 " And if you do not care to have me as a companion, I will go alone." 
 It needed all of Margaret's tact to soothe his ruffled temper. 
 
 "Very well, we will see; we will see," said Mr. Walker. "The 
 weather may be unusually favorable ; and if the best guides are disen- 
 gaged, it may not be impossible." 
 
 " We can never get him to the top " the young man thought with 
 a sinking heart; "but I will not desert him." 
 
 Margaret gave him a look of gratitude, which showed that she 
 comprehended the situation. It was a delightful thing to share a 
 responsibility of hers, to know that he was aiding her in any way; 
 and in such a cause he felt himself ready to carry Judge Houghton 
 on his back to the summit of the Jungfrau. Their short sail was 
 quickly over. The steamer stopped at Darlingen, and the passengers 
 
7 6 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 were conveyed from the lake of Thun by rail to Interlaken or the 
 
 twin lake of Brienz. 
 
 They found Interlaken a gay watering-place, with twenty-five or 
 
 more hotels, crowded with guests. Mr. Walker selected for them the 
 
 Jungfraublick, on the Hoheweg or main avenue, a pleasant street, 
 
 shaded with walnut trees. The windows of their rooms commanded 
 
 a fine view of the Jungfrau. They were com- 
 fortably lodged, but the troops of tourists who 
 were continually coming and going had robbed 
 Interlaken of its secluded rural air and the 
 peasants of their unconscious simplicity. 
 
 " Beautiful as it is, I would not care to 
 remain here long," Cecilia said; and the rest 
 echoed the sentiment. 
 
 Margaret had fancied that, she enjoyed rank, 
 fashion, and wealth ; but its continued display 
 at Interlaken surfeited her. The orchestra, 
 discoursing Strauss and Offenbach in the 
 Kursaal, Swiss peasants metamorphosed into 
 waiters in full-dress suits, flirting white nap- 
 kins, and serving interminable glasses of Rhine 
 wine, imposing equipages, with high-stepping 
 horses, jingling chains, and gilded harnesses, 
 a Golconda of diamonds at the breakfast-table, 
 electric lights and telephones, and the crowd 
 of invalids and pleasure-seekers, — all wearied 
 
 her inexpressibly ; and she longed to flee away to some boundless, 
 
 uninhabited wilderness. 
 
 If she had thought more deeply, she would have recognized the 
 
 fact that she was more dissatisfied with herself than with her 
 
 surroundings. 
 
 Judge Houghton on the morning after their arrival arrayed himself 
 
 A METAMORPHOSED NA- 
 TIVE OF INTERLAKEN. 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAATD. 
 
 77 
 
 lif" 
 
 in his Alpine costume, and apostro- 
 phized the Jungfrau from the bal- 
 cony of his bedroom in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 " So there you are, old lady, and 
 in good humor, not a cloud on your 
 brow. Just wait a moment until I 
 have my lunch put up, and I will 
 make . your more intimate acquaint- 
 ance." 
 
 Mr. Walker, who had the adjoin- 
 ing room, heard him speaking, and 
 opened his blinds. 
 
78 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IJV SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Ah ! and there you are, sleepy head ! " exclaimed the Judge. 
 " Come, let us be off, or we will not be back in time for dinner." 
 
 "I should think not," replied Mr. Walker. "Why, my dear sir, 
 there are fifty miles of good climbing between us and the summit of 
 the Jungfrau, for all it looks so near." 
 
 The Judge was much disappointed, and could hardly believe the 
 
 statement ; but he descended to 
 the office and there made the 
 acquaintance of a young tour- 
 ist, who had similar aspirations 
 in regard to the Jungfrau. 
 Speedily an agreement was 
 made between them to ascend 
 the mountain in company; and 
 the younger enthusiast secured 
 the services of two of the best- 
 known guides who happened 
 to be looking for employment, 
 agreeing to drive to Grindel- 
 wald, and to make the ascen- 
 sion from that point, on Mon- 
 day of the following week. 
 When the Judge announced 
 this plan at breakfast, Margaret and Mr. Walker regarded each other 
 across the table in dismay. " But you promised to climb the moun- 
 tain with Mr. Walker, grandpa ! " Margaret exclaimed. 
 
 " Mr. Walker is welcome to come with me," the Judge replied. 
 " But you forget that he promised to take us to-day to the valley of 
 Lauterbrunnen and the Fall of the Staubach, and you wanted to see 
 that, too." 
 
 " So I did, so I did. I wanted to photograph it for my lecture. Is 
 there not time for both ? " 
 
 THE JUDGE SALUTES THE JUNGFRAU.. 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 79 
 
 " Hardly, before Monday ; but you can send word to the guides, 
 postponing the excursion," suggested Mr. Walker. 
 
 "Hum, hum!" muttered the Judge, only half satisfied. "The 
 guides are positively engaged for the first of next week by this Mr. 
 Barney Jones, who cultivates athletics, and has taken the prize in 
 several walking matches. He intends to ascend the Jungfrau, and I 
 think it would be a good plan for us to make one party." 
 
 " I doubt the expediency of the plan," Mr. Walker replied. " There 
 is a great difference between walking in a gymnasium on a level track 
 and climbing mountains, and every weak link added reduces the 
 strength of our chain." 
 
 " That may be," replied the Judge ; " but this young man has been 
 in training for a year, with Alpine mountaineering in view. He's 
 something of a dandy, it's true ; but he is acquainted with the members 
 of the English Alpine Club, and he is provided with all the latest 
 accoutrements. You ought to hear him talk. He knows why 
 Whymper failed so many times on the Matterhorn, and what to 
 do in case of avalanches. I think it would be a great help to 
 have him with us; besides, it would make the trip cost less for us 
 both." 
 
 At this point a servant announced that the carriage ordered to take 
 them to Staubach had arrived, and the conversation was interrupted. 
 
 The Judge hastily pencilled a note to Mr. Jones, saying that he 
 Avould not fail to be at Grindelwald on Monday. 
 
 " We have escaped one danger," Mr. Walker said to Margaret, as 
 they found themselves together for an instant on leaving the table. 
 
 " I fear it is only postponing the evil day," she replied. " Grandpa 
 is determined on making this ascent." 
 
 " He is no more equal to it than to travelling on foot and alone 
 across Central Africa ! " Mr. Walker exclaimed. 
 
 " I know it, and he is just as likely to take it into his head to 
 attempt the African, expedition. What can I do ? I feel so utterly 
 
80 . THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 helpless. I had no idea of the responsibility I was assuming when I 
 promised grandma that I would take care of him." 
 
 " Don't worry; trust it all to me. . He shall not ascend the Jung- 
 frau ; something shall occur to make him miss this opportunity." 
 
 It had been decided that Mrs. Newton and Annette should proceed 
 with the baggage to Grindelwald and wait for the rest of the party, 
 who would ride from Staubach over the Wenger Alp to that place. 
 
 They dined at Staubach and then struck off from the valley, follow- 
 ing a bridle-path to the top of the Wenger Alp. It was Saturday 
 afternoon and they had planned to pass the Sabbath at a little inn at 
 the top in the solitude of the high Alps. It was an experience never 
 to be forgotten, proving to be one of the most enjoyable excursions of 
 their trip. This mountain is considered of easy ascent, and from its 
 top wonderful views are to be obtained of the giants of the Oberland, 
 by which it is surrounded, and especially of the Jungfrau, from which 
 it is separated by a comparatively narrow ravine. 
 
 The trip was made on horseback (the carriage which had brought 
 them being sent back to Interlaken) and a hostler following on foot to 
 take back the saddle-horses to Stauback. After an hour of rather 
 steep climbing, they paused at the village of Wengern and looked 
 down upon the valley, which seemed from that height a narrow cleft. 
 A rustic came from one of the houses and played upon an immense 
 Alpine horn for their enjoyment. The blast which he blew was so 
 mighty that the girls covered their ears and begged him to desist. 
 The musician seemed accustomed to having his performance received 
 in this way, and accepted the Judge's gratuity with smiling satisfac- 
 tion. Their path wound now through a pine forest. The Judge, 
 knowing that a fine view would be afforded just beyond, hurried for- 
 ward, calling to the others to hasten. Cecilia and Alice urged their 
 horses, and as Margaret and Mr. Walker had alighted and were 
 varying the trip by walking, they were left behind with the hostler 
 who led their horses. Mr. Walker had been talking enthusiastically 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND, 8 1 
 
 of Agassiz, and Margaret listened with interest to the young mans 
 description of his master's life in the Hotel Neuchatelois as he 
 christened the cabin on the Aar glacier in which he and his friends 
 lived while making their observations. 
 
 " Just what was it that Agassiz discovered in relation to glaciers? " 
 Margaret asked. " I know that his monument in Mount Auburn is a 
 boulder from the glacier of the Aar ; but I am ashamed to say that I 
 do not know exactly what Agassiz's discovery was. It was known 
 before this that glaciers moved, was it not? You must not infer 
 everything discreditable to my college from my ignorance," she added 
 quickly, noticing the young man's momentary expression of surprise. 
 " Remember I am only a sophomore. We take up lithological and 
 physiographic geology next year." 
 
 " The wildest theories in regard to glaciers were held before Agas- 
 siz," Mr. Walker replied. " One scientist read a paper before the 
 British Academy to prove that they were remnants of the deluge. It 
 had been proved by actual observation that they moved, but the world 
 at large had not accepted the proof. Agassiz discovered their rate of 
 movement and many other phenomena, and drew from them very 
 broad and overwhelming conclusions, which entirely revolutionized 
 the theory held until that time in regard to glaciers. The scientist 
 Hugi had built a cabin on a glacier of the Aar in 1872, and had care- 
 fully recorded its position in relation to objects near by ; and when 
 Agassiz visited the spot in 1839, he found the cabin four thousand 
 feet lower down. For ten years he labored among the principal 
 glaciers of the Alps, ascertaining their rate of motion by determining 
 by triangulation the exact position of the more prominent rocks, and 
 returning year after year to mark the change. He made careful 
 meteorological observations upon the internal temperature of the 
 glaciers by boring to a great depth through the ice and nserting 
 registering thermometers. He caused himself to be lowered into 
 crevasses, and ascended many peaks regarded as inaccessible, and his 
 
82 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 companions under his direction studied the flora and fauna of the 
 
 region, and the mysterious red snow — " 
 " Pray, what .is that ? " Margaret asked. 
 " It was discovered under the microscope to consist of myriads 
 
 of infusoria, a low order of plant life. It is not infrequently met with 
 
 in this region." 
 
 Shortly after this they emerged from the wood and arrived at the 
 
 hotel where a magnificent view opened 
 before them of the Jungfrau, just across 
 the ravine of the Trumleten. It seemed 
 only at the distance of a rifle shot and 
 all its inmost recesses were opened up 
 to them, but from this point it was ut- 
 terly inaccessible. The Judge stood 
 among a party gazing spell-bound at 
 its steep incline wrapped in a long, un- 
 broken, winding sheet of snow. As he 
 looked a long rift or crack was dis- 
 tinctly seen across one of them, suc- 
 ceeded a moment later by a loud re- 
 port, and an immense cake or snow-field 
 slipped away from the side of the moun- 
 tain, coasted down the precipice, bursting 
 
 into a flurry of fine white powder and disappearing in the precipice 
 
 at their feet. 
 
 "An avalanche!" everyone exclaimed in a breath, and a young 
 
 exquisite in patent leathers and a silk hat turned and murmured — 
 
 " It is fwiteful ! It is positively fwiteful. Think of being cwushed 
 
 flatter than an opewa hat by one of those beastly avalanches ! How 
 
 fwitefully disagweeable." 
 
 It was Mr. Barney Jones who had come over armed with all the 
 
 approved methods of the Alpine Club, and who then and there 
 
 "POSITIVELY FWITEFUL. 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 8 
 
 O 
 
 relinquished his ambition of climbing " that blawsted Jungfwaw. 
 Because it isn't blawsted, you know," he explained. "No joke, 'pon 
 honor, if they would only blawst away the snow, and constwuct a 
 gwaded pawth, then there would be some weason in the undertaking." 
 
 Other avalanches followed. They were not so frightful to look at, 
 as to hear ; for it was necessary to remind oneself that what seemed 
 only a flurry of white powder near at hand was miles away, and covered 
 a vast extent, while the detonations were tremendous and, conveyed 
 through the marvellously pure air with perfect distinctness, seemed 
 like the reverberations of thunder. An American is said to have 
 once remarked of the same scene, " I tell you, when I heard the first 
 avalanche fall, I thought the whole creation was tumbling to pieces. 
 And yet 'twas no more to look at than a barrel of flour tipped over! " 
 
 The cone of the Jungfrau is so pointed that only one person can 
 stand on it at once and the last part of the ascension is usually effected 
 with ladders. 
 
 The Judge, seeing that his hero had given up the ascent, also 
 reluctantly acknowledged it impossible. After supper they all watched 
 the sunset flushing the peaks, and dying away into cool gray, then the 
 mists rose from the valleys and shrouded the mountains, and a cold 
 wind from the Jungfrau seemed to freeze the marrow in their bones. 
 The moon was coming up and touching the crests and turning them 
 to mighty silver candlesticks, but the cold grew more and more intense 
 and they were glad to take refuge by the blazing fire of the inn. The 
 landlord's daughter played on the zithern, but the room was filled with 
 tourists, and when thoroughly warmed the girls retired to their simple 
 bedroom. They lay awake for some time listening to the notes of the 
 zithern rising from the room below and softened by distance, and 
 watching the white moonlight streaming in from the large window 
 until moonlight and music melted into their dreams. 
 
 The next morning nearly all of the tourists went on their journey. 
 The landlord told them of some open-air preaching within walking 
 
84 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 distance, and the rest set out for the convocation. The preacher was 
 very simple and unimpassioned in his address, but the peasants listened 
 devoutly with bared heads, and the singing, with the great mountains 
 all about them, was very impressive. 
 
 "This is the grandest cathedral I ever saw," said Cecilia. 
 
 " I was reading to grandpa only the other night what Ruskin says 
 of the mountains," Margaret said, as they walked back to the little 
 hotel. " I copied a part in my journal," and Margaret read : — 
 
 " ' They seem to have been built for the human race as at once their 
 schools and cathedrals ; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript for 
 the scholar, kindly in simple lessons to the worker, quiet in pale 
 cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. 
 Great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of 
 cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple 
 traversed by the continual stars.' " 
 
 They spent the afternoon in a secluded nook, reading quietly part 
 of the time, or talking in subdued tones, but listening more frequently 
 and watching for the avalanches which, loosened by the mid-day sun, 
 plunged at intervals into the gorge. They had lost the sense of fright 
 which the first impression of the mountain and the precipice had made 
 upon them, but the feeling of awe deepened. All the life of Interlaken 
 and its like seemed petty and contemptible; great thoughts and 
 aspirations filled Margaret's soul; it seemed to her that she had never 
 been so near God before. 
 
 The next morning they descended to Grindelwald, walking all the 
 way, and accomplishing it before dinner. No one was wearied but 
 Judge Houghton, who was kindly assisted by Mr. Walker. The 
 grand peak of the Wetterhorn rose in front of them, and the Faulhorn 
 loomed on their left toward the north, while on the right was the 
 lower glacier of Grindelwald. It was their first view of a real glacier 
 — a great frozen river composed by the alternate melting and freezing 
 of the snowfall on the different peaks, and the snows of each season 
 
THE WELLHORN AND WETTERHORN. 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 87 
 
 pressing downward and onward the deposit of the last. The Fin- 
 steraarhorn is the centre of the glacial system of the Oberland, from 
 its sides and between it and the surrounding mountains sweep the 
 great glacier of the Aar and its smaller branches. The Finsteraarhorn 
 has rightly been called the " monarch of mountains." It overtops all 
 its surrounding brothers, rising to the height of fourteen thousand one 
 hundred and six feet. One author says of it, " It rises up like a huge 
 tower from the Hetsch glacier, Viescher glaciers, Grindelwald and 
 Finsteraar glaciers, and looking as if in rising it had dragged part of 
 them up with it ; for there are pillars and buttresses of ice reaching 
 to its topmost summit, and connecting it with its neighbors on the 
 east and west, the fair Jungfrau, the round-headed Monk, the sharp- 
 pointed Eiger and gloomy Shreckhorn, the Wetterhorns (and others), 
 which stand on either side of the monarch and form his court." 
 
 As they passed the Grindelwald glacier Mr. Walker gave them 
 much interesting information in regard to it and other glaciers. He 
 explained the origin of the curious mushroom-shaped tables and the 
 small wells ; the former caused by the larger stones shading the ice 
 beneath them and keeping it from melting, so that while the surface 
 around was lowered by the action of the sun the rock was hoisted 
 in air by an ever-growing pedestal. The small stones, on the contrary, 
 are heated through by the sun and cause the ice to melt more rapidly, 
 forming the narrow wells. 
 
 The Judge remarked on the size of the stones in the moraine at the 
 foot of the glacier. He had not supposed that the debris would be so 
 considerable or so difficult to cross. 
 
 " Then you have not heard the definition of a moraine given by a 
 member of the Alpine Club ? " Mr. Walker asked ; " the young man 
 described it as one hundred thousand cartloads of stones carefully 
 piled up by Nature on scientific principles with a view to the dislo- 
 cation of the human ankle." 
 
 Grindelwald was wilder and more simple than Interlaken. There 
 
38 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 were fewer tourists and the peasants more unsophisticated, though the 
 girls were still importuned to purchase wood-carvings and lace, and 
 small boys followed them with specimens from the glacier, crystals 
 and pebbles, and bouquets of Alpine flowers. At this point they 
 rejoined Mrs. Newton and Annette, who had not cared to take the 
 mountain excursion, and here in front of the hotel they found M'f. 
 Barney Jones in hot altercation with one of the guides who had 
 
 been engaged to ascend the Jung- 
 frau. The young athlete was as 
 eager now to give up the excursion 
 as he had been to undertake it ; 
 but the guides held him to his 
 bargain, and the hotel-keeper took 
 sides with them. The Judge of- 
 fered to pay the sum which he 
 had previously agreed upon to 
 settle the matter; and Mr. Walker 
 stepped in as mediator. 
 
 " It isn't the money," said the 
 recusant Alpinist, "but the howid 
 cweatures seem to regard me as 
 their lawful pwey and are deter- 
 mined to lug me along body and 
 bones. I'll pay the fellahs what- 
 ever I've pwomised if they'll only 
 let me off from making the twip." 
 This being explained to the guides, everything was amicably 
 arranged, and from Grindelwald our friends proceeded on the next 
 day to Meiringen. Here Mr. Walker took leave of them, turning off 
 toward the right on his way to the hospice of the Grimsel and thence 
 to the glacier of the Aar. Annette suggested that this was the most 
 direct route to Zermatt, and all regretted the ending of their pleasant 
 
 MR. BARNEY JONES IN DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 
THE JUNGFRAU AND THE OBERLAND. 89 
 
 intercourse, and none more than Mr. Walker himself. Judge Houghton 
 would gladly have accompanied him, but the young man assured 
 Margaret that the mountaineering which he must now undertake was 
 much too difficult for the Judge. " The Rigi is quite enough for 
 him," he said to her ; " and I think that when he has once made that 
 ascent he will be satisfied. I would like very much to take him with 
 me across some of the passes. After I have finished my Agassiz 
 pilgrimage, I would like to make such a trip as your friend thought of, 
 and follow up Napoleon as an engineer. I will be through with my 
 glacier work in about a month from the present time. Have I your 
 permission to join you then ? " 
 
 " Grandpa will be delighted to go with you, I am sure," Margaret 
 replied. " We shall be at Zermatt in all probability." 
 
 " That is a dangerous point for any one afflicted with the mania 
 scandens. If your grandfather manifests any wild desire to scale the 
 Matterhorn, write me at the Grimsel, and I will fly to him at once." 
 
 Margaret laughed, but underneath the apparent lightness on either 
 side, she was certain that here was a friend who could be depended 
 upon in any real need ; and he knew that he was ready to do all that 
 he had said, and more than he dared to offer, for her sake. 
 
9 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LUCERNE. 
 
 Yonder lies 
 The lake of the Four Forest Towns, apparelled 
 In light, and lingering like a village maiden. 
 
 Overhead, 
 Shaking his cloudy tresses loose in air, 
 Rises Pilatus with his windy pines. 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 WHEN the party took the diligence at Meiringen, which was 
 to carry them over the Brunig towards Lucerne, even the I 
 weather seemed to sympathize with the low state of feeling 
 caused by the parting. All the skies in the Oberland had been fair; 
 all their days bright and pleasant ; but now a heavy fog wrapped the 
 mountains. As they alighted and looked back, just before reaching the 
 post-house on the summit of the Col de Brunig, hoping to obtain the 
 traditional farewell view of all the mountains whose names end in horn, I 
 a dense gray curtain was stretched between them and the " Delectable 
 Mountains," and Margaret felt that all the beautiful past was blotted out. 
 
 At Alpnach Mr. Walker had told them to look for the chute, down 
 which logs are slid from the pine forests on the slopes of Mount 
 Pilatus to the lake, a distance of eight miles. The slide is paved with 
 over twenty-five thousand trees, stripped of their bark, and laid at an 
 angle of ten to eighteen degrees. Logs shoot down the eight miles 
 in less than six minutes. 
 
 It was not actually raining when they reached Alpnach, on the 
 shore of Lake Lucerne, but Annette pointed to Mount Pilatus tower- 
 ing above them, and repeated the old German proverb : — 
 
LUCERNE. 
 
 91 
 
 "Hat Pilatus sein hut 
 Dann wird das Wetter gut, 
 Trtigt er aber einen Degen 
 So giebts wo hi sic her regeti. 
 
 Which has been translated : — 
 
 If Pilatus wears his hood, 
 Then the weather's always good ; 
 If he draws his dirk again, 
 We shall surely then have rain. 
 
 They looked, and saw that, instead of the round cloud which 
 usually caps the mountain's head, a ragged, cloudy streamer, shaped 
 something like a waving 
 sword, was flying like a 
 
 storm-signal toward Lu- ^jp^gE!^ v>i^ ^sfi:- 
 
 cerne. A storm of wind, 
 the avant-courier of the 
 tempest gathering in the 
 Oberland, was evidently 
 raging at the top of the 
 mountain, though unfelt 
 in the lower air. 
 
 " What an excellent 
 place that would be for 
 Old Probability's office," 
 the Judge remarked. 
 
 " But not an enviable 
 station for the signal offi- 
 cer," Margaret replied. 
 
 " There is an interesting legend connected with the mountain," 
 said Cecilia; "have you never heard it?" When the bustle occa- 
 sioned by their transfer from the diligence to the little steamer which 
 
 PILATUS, LAKE OF LUCERNE. 
 
9 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 was to convey them to Lucerne had subsided, she told them the 
 legend somewhat as follows : — 
 
 " After the death of the Saviour, Pilate so greatly mismanaged the 
 government of Judea that he was recalled by Tiberius to Rome, and 
 an examination made into his affairs. Most mysteriously the emperor 
 cleared him, and re-instated him in favor. Other charges were made 
 against him, with like result, when it was suggested that Pilate used 
 magical arts to maintain his influence over the emperor. He was ex- 
 amined by his enemies, and it was discovered that he wore the Saviour's 
 robe as an amulet underneath his toga, and when this was stripped 
 off, the emperor immediately threw him into prison. Here Pilate 
 committed suicide, and his body was cast into the Tiber. Storms and 
 tempests visited Rome, and the indignant river cast the corpse upon 
 the shore. It was then carried into Gaul and thrown into the Rhine ; 
 but the heathen river also refused to cover the criminal, and after 
 many vicissitudes the body was finally sunk in a little lake on the top 
 of the mountain which now bears the Roman governor's name. Even 
 here he refused to rest, until exorcised by a travelling student from 
 Salamanca, learned in the Black Art, who laid him under a spell, 
 forcing him to consent to but one holiday during the year, and that 
 on Good Friday. On this night a terrible figure, dressed in the red 
 robes of magistracy, is sometimes seen by the peasants, but whoever 
 beholds him dies within the following year." 
 
 "What nonsense," commented the Judge; "does the superstition 
 still exist ? " 
 
 "Hardly now, but it died a lingering death. It was said that 
 Pilate's anger was excited whenever the water of his lake was dis- 
 turbed. At one time all persons were forbidden to visit the lake, and 
 a guardian was posted on the mountain side to keep them at a 
 distance. In 1337 six priests were imprisoned for ascending the 
 mountain. In 15 18 four enlightened men obtained permission to 
 investigate the myth. They ascended the mountain, hurled stones 
 
w 
 
 & 
 
 w 
 u 
 
 p 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 o 
 K 
 
 
 
LUCERNE. 
 
 95 
 
 into the lake and dared Pilate to do his worst. Oddly enough a 
 severe storm followed, and the superstition was confirmed." 
 
 Almost as Cecilia finished speaking, the storm which had been 
 gathering about the head of the haunted mountain burst upon them, 
 first in violent gusts of wind which nearly tore their hats from their 
 heads, and then in a steady down-pour of rain. By this time, however, 
 the boat had nearly reached Lucerne, and they were soon housed in 
 the Hotel National which fronts the quay. 
 
 Their baggage had arrived before them, having been sent on from 
 Interlaken, and the girls were soon engaged in dressing for dinner 
 — a custom which had not been kept up in the Oberland. 
 
 Margaret gave a little sigh as she shook out the ruffles of her 
 embroidered Swiss gown, and heated her hair-crimper in the gas. 
 " I feel as if I had been lifted out of myself, and had been allowed to 
 fall to earth once more. I don't believe it will be so easy to be good 
 here as it was among the mountains. I foresee that now we shall 
 have Glion over again." 
 
 Her foresight seemed to have something prophetic about it ; for 
 as they entered the dining-room, a tall man in heavily frogged and 
 decorated military dress rose from a table at the extreme end of the 
 room and came forward to meet them, while a little old woman in 
 black, who occupied the next seat, flourished her napkin and beck- 
 oned wildly with a tall fan. 
 
 Alice exclaimed, " Lajos ! " and Margaret, " The Countess ! " but in 
 very different tones. 
 
 The Countess was evidently overjoyed. She kissed the girls all 
 around, not even forgetting Alice, but she saluted Margaret on both 
 cheeks and held her off and gazed at her with rapture. " How well 
 you are looking ! And you have on ze dress I gave you. It becomes 
 to you very well. Where have you been all zis time ? It is an 
 eternity I have wait for you." 
 
 " It is only four or five days, countess, and we have had a posi- 
 tively heavenly time." 
 
96 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 "The scenery was magnificent," Alice was saying to Lajos, "but 
 really it was a little lonely." 
 
 " I am glad of that," replied Lajos. " Aunt and I have been 
 devoured with loneliness." 
 
 " But Glion was not a desolate wilderness, and Lucerne does not 
 
 seem to be deserted." 
 
 " True, the hotel is crowded, 
 but what objectionable people ! " 
 " There is one comfort," Mar- 
 garet remarked as she surveyed 
 the table d^hote, " Calumet and 
 Hecla are not here." 
 
 " I have found some one very 
 similar," Lajos replied. .»". An 
 American who . monopolizes the 
 newspapers in the reading-room, 
 actually sitting on those which 
 he is not reading, but making 
 up for it by obligingly giving 
 quotations from the stock mar- 
 ket, and shouting at intervals : 
 ' Bell Telephone, firm and 
 steady ! ' ' Pullman Car, active ! ' 
 ' Atchison depressed ! ' ' Copper falling ! ' or other ejaculations as 
 remarkable." 
 
 The countess had purchased tickets for them for a concert to take 
 place that evening. " How did you know that we would arrive 
 to-night ? " Margaret asked. 
 
 " She has bought them regularly every evening," Lajos explained ; 
 11 and you see she has kept these seats for you at this table, assuring 
 the -head waiter every day that you would certainly be here for the 
 next meal." 
 
 STOCK OUOTATIONS. 
 
LUCERNE. 
 
 97 
 
 " Zat is nossing, zat is nossing, and who is it who read effery time 
 ze arrival at all ze hotel ? And who promenade himself ze town 
 around to meet zese young ladies ? " 
 
 " I will not pretend that I did not have some personal interest in 
 the matter; but then, my dear aunt, I could not see you so impatient 
 without doing all I could to relieve your anxiety." 
 
 " Fiddlestick, zat is not polite ; more, zat is not true, and now who 
 will go to ze concert ? " 
 
 Mrs. Newton, the Judge, and Cecilia were weary, and begged to be 
 excused, and a partie quarr'e was formed of the countess and Marga- 
 ret, Alice and Lajos. " Quite as in the old days," Margaret thought, 
 hardly realizing that the old days were only last week. But there 
 was this difference now, — the countess placed her arm inside that 
 of Alice, and peremptorily beckoned Lajos to offer his to Margaret ; 
 and yet Margaret did not seem to have declined at all in her favor. 
 
 Margaret felt herself exhilarated as they drove through the wet 
 streets, the lamps reflected in the glistening pavements, and still more 
 so as they took their places in the brilliantly lighted hall filled with 
 beautiful women in full dress, the odor of hot-house flowers, and the 
 entrancing strains of a fine orchestra. 
 
 Their seats were not quite together, but were separated by an aisle, 
 so that Margaret found herself for the first time alone with Lajos, 
 in a crowd to be sure, but virtually alone, and she was obliged to 
 confess that he was not entertaining. Perhaps the reason was that 
 he was so fond of music, but he scarcely spoke to her. Once he 
 roused himself and asked if they had met the engineer again of whom 
 Alice had spoken. " Oh, yes ! " Margaret replied, " and he was greatly 
 interested in your plan of making a Napoleon pilgrimage. I really 
 wish you could meet and arrange to make it together. He will soon 
 furnish his observations on the Aar glacier. His address is the hos- 
 pice of the Grimsel ; if you cared to write him he would come to 
 Lucerne." 
 
gg THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " I ? Oh, no ! " Lajos replied hastily ; " I don't want him in Lu- 
 cerne ; quite the contrary. Do you think he admires Miss Alice ? " 
 
 " Why, of course ; every one does." And Lajos relapsed into 
 silence. 
 
 Their intercourse during the week that followed was carried on 
 after the same plan. Alice was now the countess's chosen companion, 
 and Margaret and Lajos, without any wish of their own, were con- 
 stantly thrown together. Just what the countess had in view by this 
 arrangement no one quite understood. Mrs. Newton, at all events, 
 was well satisfied. Her quick instincts had boded no good from the 
 evident pleasure which Lajos and Alice took in each other's society 
 so long as the countess maintained her prejudice. 
 
 Margaret was selfishly glad to be relieved from attendance on the 
 countess ; Lajos possibly hoped that Alice would win the heart of his 
 patroness, and too polite to allow his indifference to Margaret to render 
 him rude, calmly accepted the role assigned him. Alice showed by 
 no word or sign that the countess's society was not in all respects as 
 agreeable as that of her nephew, and was as sweet and unruffled, as 
 thoughtful and unselfish, as ever. 
 
 Annette's displeasure on finding that intercourse was again estab- 
 lished with the Countess Krajova can better be imagined than 
 described. She was quite sure now that this was not her former 
 mistress. There were points of dissimilarity which struck her more 
 forcibly as she studied the strange woman. Moreover, a letter had 
 arrived from her uncle at Zermatt, informing her that the landlord 
 of the Riffel Hotel was positive that the Baroness Du Fais had died 
 the year following Annette's emigration to America. This was reas- 
 suring; but if this mysterious countess was not Margaret's aunt, who 
 was she ? And how had she come into possession of the vinaigrette 
 with the well-known crest? 
 
 Annette had surreptitiously entered the countess's rooms during 
 her absence, and had looked over all her belongings. There was 
 
LUCERNE. 
 
 99 
 
 nothing marked with the fire-brand crest with the exception of the 
 vinaigrette, and no scrap of writing to identify her with the Baroness. 
 In her eagerness to suppress any link of evidence, Annette committed 
 the mistake of stealing the vinaigrette. The theft was not immedi- 
 ately traced to her, but the countess missed the keepsake which was 
 evidently one with associations, and talked of it continually, describing 
 the crest minutely. Annette recognized 
 her blunder, and trembled for fear of 
 detection. Something must be done at 
 once, and she accordingly accosted Mar- 
 garet one evening: with the information 
 that no amount of reward would induce 
 her to remain another day in Lucerne. 
 
 " It is evident," Annette said very 
 pertly, " that you do not care to find 
 your relatives ; but as for me, I am not 
 going to neglect mine any longer, and, 
 with your permission, I will leave you 
 and take the direct route to Zermatt 
 by way of the Visp valley." 
 
 " You must not speak to me in that 
 way, Annette. I have not lost my in- 
 terest in my unknown relatives ; but I 
 prefer to be the mistress of my own 
 movements, and to remain in Lucerne 
 until after the great festival. It would 
 
 o 
 
 be very foolish to leave the city before it takes place when it is so 
 near at hand. Meantime, you are perfectly at liberty to go on in 
 advance of us, and to announce our coming to my aunt." 
 
 This plan was accordingly decided upon, and Annette left at once. 
 
 The time was approaching for the annual festival in honor of 
 William Tell, and great preparations were in progress for its celebra- 
 
 ANNETTE TAKES HER 
 DEPARTURE. 
 
IOO THREE VASSAR GIRLS W SWITZERLAND. 
 
 tion upon the lake. Many anxious eyes were turned toward the 
 heavens, for the rain still descended, and Pilatus pointed a threaten- 
 ing; dagger toward Lucerne. 
 
 But Cecilia's music drove away ennui, or they read in turn aloud, 
 while the countess worked upon an interminable piece of embroid- 
 ery. Occasionally the clouds lifted, and they slipped out to see the 
 sights of the city. The monument to the Swiss Guards who fell on 
 the ioth of August, 1792, while defending Louis XVI of France and 
 his family from the attacks of the revolutionists, is a very noble one. 
 It is from a design by Thorwaldsen, and is cut from the natural rock. 
 It represents a dying lion protecting a shield which bears the device 
 of the Bourbon lilies. Over the cave in which the lion rests, are 
 carved the words, " Helvetiorum fidei ac virtuti" — " To the valor and 
 fidelity of the Swiss," — and beneath are the names of the fallen heroes. 
 
 The countess repeated some lines written by a - Frenchman who 
 admired their heroism more than the cause for which it was shown : — 
 
 " Fideles au serment que l'erreur a dicte 
 Genereux defenseurs d'une injuste querelle, 
 Vous, morts en combattant contre la liberte, 
 Vous meritez bien mieux d'avoir v£cu pour elle." 
 
 The countess always called Margaret into her room after these 
 excursions, and asked her what she had seen, and very often the 
 intelligent old lady supplemented the sight-seeing with some inter- 
 esting or valuable bit of information. 
 
 On one occasion Margaret ridiculed an old stove which she had 
 seen among the trophies of the city museum. " I presume it was the 
 one on which Winkelried's mother baked his brown bread," she 
 remarked derisively. 
 
 " My tear, how is it possible you can not haf heard ze history to 
 zat: stove ? " the countess asked. " Zat is one very old legend. Ze 
 stove have formerly stand in ze guild-room of ze butchers. It was 
 
LUCERNE. IOI 
 
 in sirteen sirty-two, when zare was plot to deliver Lucerne to ze 
 Austriano. One small boy hear ze plot, but ze conspirators catch 
 him and make him to swear he will tell no livino- human being- what 
 he justly did hear. For well zey know zat ze Swiss boy's conscience 
 not suffer him to tell a lie. But look you, zat Swiss boy not altogether 
 one fool. He run into ze guild-room, at zat time full of butcher, 
 and he cry out to ze stove, ' O stove, I have promise to tell no human 
 being, but I declare unto zee zis plot.' Zen he tell it all, and of course 
 ze butchers know it too, and ze plot is spoil and ze city safed." 
 
 " Swiss boys do not seem to be lacking in ready wit," remarked 
 Mrs. Newton. " I remember to have read of one, a boy of St. Gall, 
 who brought milk each morning to the castle of a nobleman. On 
 one occasion the nobleman asked him some questions which he 
 answered saucily, whereupon he was told that the next time he 
 appeared near the castle the dog should be set upon him. The boy 
 came the next morning, carrying his milk-cans as usual, when the 
 nobleman, out of pure wantonness, set a fierce bull-dog upon the boy, 
 who coolly lifted the cover of one of his cans; a huge cat sprung from 
 it and flew at the dog, whose attention was fully engrossed by its 
 unexpected antagonist, while the boy walked slowly away laughing 
 derisively." 
 
 The river Reuss issues from the lake at Lucerne, and is here very 
 swift and strong. It is crossed by two long and curious bridges. One 
 of them, the Kappelbrlicke, is covered, and the interior is hung with 
 seventy strange old pictures celebrating the acts of St. Maurice. 
 Although, as we have explained, Lajos was generally Margaret's 
 escort, it happened that he accompanied Mrs. Newton and Alice on 
 their visit to this bridge. It was a dark day, and they soon tired 
 of peering into the shadows and trying to make out the subjects of 
 the paintings, and they turned to watch the shipping. 
 
 " The Swiss seem particularly fond of representations of death," 
 Alice said. 
 
102 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " They have death before them more familiarly than the inhabitants 
 of the plain," Lajos replied; "perhaps that is the reason that they do 
 not seem to fear it, and are ready, when occasion calls, to become 
 heroes like Arnold Von Winkelried, who 
 
 " For victory shaped an open space, 
 By gathering with a wide embrace 
 Into his single heart, a sheaf 
 Of fatal Austrian spears." 
 
 " There is one thing which 
 I do not quite understand," 
 said Alice. " You are an 
 Austrian, and yet you are constantly admiring the enemies of 
 Austria — Napoleon, Arnold Von Winkelried, Venice, all have your 
 sympathy. It is just so with the countess. She is always praising 
 liberty, — America's struggle for independence, the war in Bulgaria 
 
 
LUCERNE. • 103 
 
 against the Turks, and the French Revolution ; and yet it seems to 
 me that Austria is one of the most despotic of despotisms." 
 
 " She is ; Russia is a republic in comparison. To understand our 
 position, I must remind you that my aunt and I are only Austrians 
 in so far that our country belongs to Austria. We are Hungarians, 
 and my aunt's family were all patriots. Although they belonged to 
 the aristocratic class, they held advanced ideas in regard to liberty. 
 My aunt's brothers were students at the University of Vienna, at the 
 time of the French Revolution. They were in the deputation of two 
 thousand professors and students who presented a petition to the 
 emperor, asking for the following measures of reform : religious 
 liberty, freedom of the press, and a national legislature in which the 
 people should be represented." 
 
 " Of course this wild demand was refused ? " 
 
 " No ; the emperor was frightened, and while secretly negotiating 
 with foreign powers for aid, he temporized by granting their request. 
 The advocates of reform in Hungary felt that this was the time to 
 strike for their rights, and Kossuth, with a hundred and fifty Hun- 
 garian gentlemen, visited Vienna and made the same demand which 
 had been presented by the students. Kossuth was the idol of the 
 hour, and the emperor, feeling himself powerless before this mighty 
 popular wave of feeling, granted the demand of Hungary. A won- 
 derful bloodless revolution was effected. Hungary adopted a con- 
 stitution emancipating its serfs and giving prince and peasant equal 
 political rights." 
 
 " That was an occasion where it happened well for the country 
 that its chief ruler was a coward." 
 
 " If the event had not proved that his word was as little to be 
 trusted as his courage. All of his promises were unscrupulously 
 broken, and the Austrian army sent against the Hungarians as rebels. 
 It was a war of devastation, towns and villages were burned, and the 
 greatest cruelties inflicted ; but the Hungarians resisted bravely and 
 
io4 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS mf SWITZERLAND. 
 
 routed the Austrians again and again. The populace of Vienna were 
 in sympathy with them, and rose in revolution. The emperor fled, 
 but returning, reinforced by his army, took the city by storm, and 
 subjected it to still more rigorous despotism. Still the war raged all 
 over Hungary, and the emperor, seeing that he could not hope to crush 
 his subjects, besought foreign aid. Russia responded by sending an 
 army of a hundred and sixty thousand men to the aid of Austria, and 
 though the struggle was maintained for some time longer, it was 
 evident that there was no longer any hope. The Hungarian army 
 surrendered, but Kossuth and many other Hungarians, among whom 
 were my aunt's father and brothers, fled the country, escaping first to 
 Turkey, and from thence to England and to America. Since that 
 time my aunt has never seen these relatives, and now you can 
 understand why we love liberty." 
 
 " I see," Alice replied; "but since then Hungary has gained what 
 she asked, has she not ? " 
 
 " In great measure. It came in 1865, after Austria's humiliation 
 in being set aside from the old Germanic confederation when Prussia 
 became the leading power. Austria no longer held her old prestige, 
 and it was necessary for her to listen to the demands of her children, 
 and Hungary received her birthright. My aunt, who had gone into 
 exile with her mother when her relatives had fled the country with 
 Kossuth, and had lived much of the time in retirement in Switzerland, 
 returned to Hungary, when it became evident that a new order of 
 things was to be ushered in, and the constitutional rights of the states 
 would be respected by Austria. She was a young girl when she fled ; 
 a woman not in her first youth, but at the height of her beauty and of 
 her intellectual powers when she returned. She entered society, and 
 my uncle, who belonged to an old Austrian family, saw her in Vienna, 
 was charmed by her many excellent qualities, and married her. I wish 
 you^could have known her then as I still remember her — a brilliant 
 and fascinating woman. She has had much trouble, and age and dis- 
 appointment have made her what you now see." 
 
LUCERNE. 
 
 <o5 
 
 " I should think that her trouble ended at the time of which you 
 speak. Freedom secured for her country, a happy marriage, rank, 
 wealth, — what more could she need to make her happy ? " 
 
 " Her father and mother died shortly after this, and her brothers, 
 from whom she had heard occasionally up to this time, never returned. 
 Her youth had fled ; there was no longer the old power to hold out 
 against continued disappointment. Waiting and longing wrought its 
 work upon her, and she grew suddenly old when the conviction was 
 borne in upon her that they would never return. Then her husband 
 died, and now I am the nearest that she has left, who am only her 
 husband's nephew. She is as kind and loving as an own mother, 
 and when I am tempted to think her exacting I remember all that she 
 has suffered, and I look upon her with admiration." 
 
 Alice was silent ; it did not seem to her that even with this cross 
 light upon her history the countess was particularly worthy of admir- 
 ation; but she knew Lajos the better for their conversation. The 
 confidence already established between them was strengthened, and 
 his complaisance to all the pettish demands of the countess no longer 
 seemed to be dancing attendance on a legacy. Without apologizing 
 for her foibles he evidently wished to beg Alice's consideration for his 
 aunt. It was as though he had said, " I want you to like her, and I 
 think that if you understood her history you would be lenient to her 
 faults." 
 
 If this conversation had been carried on with Margaret, the men- 
 tion of exiled brothers would have suggested her grandfather, but 
 Alice had never heard the strange story. 
 
 " Look ! " exclaimed Mrs. Newton, " the clouds are breaking away. 
 This looks like a final clearing up. We shall have fine weather after 
 all for the Tell festival." 
 
I06 THREE V ASS All GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE TELL FESTIVAL 
 
 The ranges stood 
 Transfigured in the silver flood. 
 Their snows were flashing cold and keen, 
 Dead white, save where some sharp ravine 
 Took shadow, or the sombre green 
 Of hemlocks turned to pitchy black, 
 Against the whiteness at their back ! 
 
 WHILE the conversation just reported was in progress the 
 Judge had been enjoying a tete-a-tete with the countess. 
 " How we old people live our lives some more in ze tear 
 children," she had said. " My heart it wrap up in Lajos, and to see 
 him what you call settle in life. My husband's will shall leave to 
 him one nice castle, and zere is always his pay as officer in ze army. 
 He is an eligible parti, and I do assure you I am very difficult about him. 
 I have ze proposals most advantageous from some of ze best families 
 in Europe, but no I have one little hope that will not quite extinguish 
 itself that he will marry ze child of a friend to me for whom I have 
 him reserve. My husband have share this hope, for ze young lady 
 have property of which my husband was what you call guardian. My 
 friend have put in my husband's care, and he have put it wiz some 
 mines of his own, and now zat mines have swallow zose money, and 
 it cannot come out, which is my husband's or his ward's. But my 
 friend say zat make no difference if so Lajos marry ze young lady. 
 And so my friend and my husband make zeir wills. Zey shall have 
 ze mines together if zey marry themselves. If ze young lady refuse 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 107 
 
 to marry herself wiz Lajos, zen he shall have zat mines, and if Lajos 
 will not marry zose young lady, zen he shall not take zat mines no 
 more. It is a great mix up, and it shall all be decide when zose 
 young lady shall come of age." 
 
 The Judge listened with scant interest; he could hardly be said 
 to listen at all so far. He thought the lady very voluble and a 
 trifle absurd, and when she asked him of the fortunes of the three 
 young ladies under his care, it seemed to him that she was simply 
 inquisitive ; but he told her frankly that both Cecilia and Alice were 
 portionless, though independent maidens ; Cecilia making a good sup- 
 port for herself by teaching music, and Alice a devoted missionary. 
 
 " Then Miss Newton is a religieuse and will never marry. She has 
 what we call a vocation. It is sad, and she so young and pretty. 
 And Miss Boylston's position is not to be sought of; but your grand- 
 child, Miss Houghton ? " 
 
 It chanced that Margaret's family name had not been mentioned, 
 and the countess had taken it for granted that it was the same as that 
 of the Judge. 
 
 " Oh, Margaret will have a snug little fortune when I die ! " the old 
 gentleman replied. 
 
 " And you have brought her to Europe to marry her ? " 
 
 " Marry my granddaughter ! Why, I couldn't do that, even if my 
 wife were not living ! " 
 
 " Monsieur does not understand me. You have brought her to 
 Europe to find for her a husband ? " 
 
 " Well, no ; not exactly. Margaret brought me to Europe ; and 
 there is no need of our bothering our heads about finding her a 
 husband. No danger but plenty of admirable young Americans will 
 find her ; and if there is anything that our girls are particular about, 
 it is to have their own choice." 
 
 " So ? " said the countess. She was far from understanding the 
 Judge, and she was surprised that he did not appreciate the great 
 
IOS THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 desirability of her nephew as a possible husband for Margaret. The 
 judge's apathy only raised Margaret's value in her eyes. It was 
 nothing to her that Lajos thought Margaret frivolous and mercenary. 
 Could he have heard her reckless chatter that night, as she discussed 
 him with her friends, he would have felt himself justified in this con- 
 clusion. And yet he did not know Margaret, nor Margaret herself; 
 for it was her worse nature, her worldly, ambitious self, that was 
 uppermost that evening. 
 
 " Girls," she said, " haven't we had a beautiful time to-day ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," Alice replied ; " I think I never in one day saw so 
 lovely a sunset." 
 
 Margaret laughed softly. " I didn't refer to the beauties of nature, 
 dear, but to the beauties of human nature recently displayed." 
 
 " You mean by the countess ; she is certainly very eccentric." 
 
 " She is a precious old termagant ! What a life she leads her dear 
 nephew Lajos, and every one connected with her! She seems to have 
 taken a fancy to me. Just wouldn't I be a discipline and a revelation 
 to her, if I were in Lajos' place. I wonder whether my unknown rel- 
 ative is anything like her? Think of finding a madame the countess, 
 with servants in livery, and a coat of arms on the carriage door, and a 
 castle in the Carpathians. It makes me wild with envy." 
 
 " Even when handicapped by such an aunt ? " Cecilia asked. 
 
 " Why not ? I am tremendously fond of the good things of this 
 world, and I would be willing to give a good deal for the right to 
 be — " 
 
 "Miserable," suggested Alice, as an appropriate ending. "I can- 
 not conceive of a more unhappy position than to be dependent upon 
 a benefactress whom you do not love." 
 
 At this point Judge Houghton knocked at the door of the little 
 sitting-room. "It is time you girls were in bed," he said — but he 
 paused at the door, admiring the pretty picture. 
 
 " Did you have a pleasant chat with the countess, grandpa ? " 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 IO9 
 
 "She is, without exception, the most singular female I ever met," 
 the Judge replied. "She asked me the most personal questions in 
 regard to each of you. I began to think that she was passing you 
 in review as possible wives for her nephew, but she disabused my 
 mind of that idea by assuring me that she was saving him up for a 
 distant relation. One of his Austrian cousins, I presume, and I can 
 only explain her questions by attributing them to pure abnormal curi- 
 osity. I thought I would 
 just mention that the young 
 man is contracted, that 
 there might be no heart- 
 burning or scheming in re- 
 lation to him." The judge 
 said this with a sly twinkle ; 
 for he well knew the indig- 
 nation which his remark 
 would create. 
 
 Margaret laughed SCOrn- 
 fully. " The very idea — 
 that iceberg ! And yet he 
 is quite a respectable ice- 
 berg," she added, after her 
 grandfather had left the 
 room. " Do you know I 
 that the countess is not my aunt, or I the distant relative for whom 
 the magnificent Lajos is so tenderly guarded." 
 
 Alice looked up quickly. " Do you really care for him, Mar- 
 garet ? " and again Margaret laughed her scorn. 
 
 " And would you marry a man whom you do not love ? " 
 
 " Why not, if there were no pretence ? " 
 
 " And if he did not love you ? " 
 
 " Then I think it would be perfectly fair. I am sure that the 
 
 MARGARET AND ALICE DISCUSS LAJOS. 
 
 am more than ever inclined to regret 
 
HO THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Count Lajos and I would make a perfectly matched couple," she con- 
 tinued, only half in banter. " He does not look as if he was capable 
 of warm affection, and as I am sure that I am not, I repeat that we 
 seem to have been created for one another." 
 
 A rich glow burned on Alice's cheek. " I do not think you under- 
 stand him," she said. " I am sure that he is capable of very true 
 affection, but I do not believe he is happy in this engagement." 
 
 " Then why doesn't he break it ? " 
 
 " Probably his aunt's favor and fortune are at stake." 
 
 " Then if he cares more for the fortune than for his freedom, I do 
 not see that he deserves our pity." 
 
 " Nor I ; and as I can't quite believe that he is so base as that, I 
 am sure there must be some other reason." 
 
 " I do not think so ; he is simply under his aunt's thumb. She 
 can make him do exactly as she likes. He would marry me if she 
 wished him to do so." And the thought flashed through Margaret's 
 mind, " I have only to be nice to the countess and she would throw 
 over this anciently-agreed-upon marriage and insist upon Lajos mar- 
 rying me." 
 
 The day dawned for the Tell festival, clear and perfect, greatly to 
 the delight of thousands of expectant people. Steamers and barges set 
 out in the morning from Lucerne, making the circuit of the lake, and 
 stopping on the way to Fluelen at all the villages to collect the peas- 
 ants in their holiday attire. 
 
 Lajos had engaged a steam yacht for the party, and they followed 
 in the wake of a great steamer, on which a band was playing merrily 
 and from which flags and streamers were fluttering. The great banner 
 of the Swiss Confederacy overtopped all, while the escutcheons of the 
 four forest cantons, which include the Lake of Lucerne, were dis- 
 played on broad shields on the sides of the boat. The crowd on 
 deck, in their gayly-colored costumes, gave the steamer a very bril- 
 liant appearance. In honor of the day, two of the three girls had 
 
■'/:■ (II) II 
 
 ...I'lrk? /£'!). f^Bwl ! ','iillSL.i ..;... . ,|l :,' i .f 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 I I 
 
 dressed in the costume of the Canton of Uri, which consists of red 
 petticoats and stockings, black velvet bodice, and full white waist, with 
 square velvet collars embroidered in silver. Silver chains were fastened 
 to each corner of the collar, hanging loosely under the arms. These, 
 with other silver ornaments, 
 were furnished by the count- 
 ess. Margaret wore the still 
 more lavish ornaments of a 
 peasant of Unterwalden. 
 One adjunct of the costume 
 they did not adopt, — the 
 maple-wood sandals which 
 slip with every step, and 
 make a noisy clapping on 
 the stone pavements. With- 
 out these it was impossible 
 to realize their wish to pass 
 as peasant girls among the 
 peasants. There were dis- 
 crepancies, too, in their head 
 gear. And as they stood 
 together later, before the 
 porch of the church at Alt- 
 dorf (see Frontispiece), they 
 made a pretty picture for the 
 Judge to photograph ; but 
 every true peasant knew that they were masquerading. 
 
 They stopped at the Griitli, which tradition says was the trysting- 
 place of the three patriots of Schwyz who founded the Swiss Confed- 
 eracy ; and then glided on past the Mythenstein, a rock rising from 
 the waters of the lake, on which a grateful people have chiselled an 
 inscription in honor of Schiller, who made the name of their hero, 
 William Tell, famous in literature. 
 
 A. SWISS MAIDEN. 
 
ii4 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The boat paused for a few moments at the Tellenplatte, where 
 stands the famous chapel to Tell, on the spot where he is supposed to 
 have sprung on shore and escaped ; but the shrine of the pilgrimage 
 was the church at Altdorf. All the boats came to anchor at Fluelen ; 
 a procession was formed, which proceeded on foot to Altdorf, while 
 
 those who did not care to 
 gjjjjj iiBEi. take part in the procession 
 
 bestowed themselves in the 
 carriages, omnibuses, and ve- 
 hicles of every description 
 which were in waiting. All 
 the village of Altdorf came 
 out to meet them, singing 
 patriotic songs and bearing 
 garlands. Mottoes were dis- 
 played on the fronts of the 
 houses. Wreaths and gar- 
 lands of evergreen and of 
 flowers were interspersed 
 with bunting and fluttering 
 ribbons. The Schutz Verein, 
 in a sort of Robin Hood 
 ^ pK^ costume, carrying cross-bows, 
 
 ippiiw*** 5 ^ came from the gymnasium. 
 
 tell's chapel, lake of lucerne. The Capuchins, in their long 
 
 brown gowns with knotted 
 rope girdles, marched from their monastery, chanting and carrying 
 processional crosses and candles ; and the nuns marshalled the chil- 
 dren. A bishop in white, holding his hand aloft in blessing, and 
 priests in scarlet or in black robes, swinging censers and sprink- 
 ling holy water, stood upon the church steps. As the processions 
 approached, the bishop turned and led the way into the church, 
 where mass was said. 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 115 
 
 At Altdorf all the associations connected with William Tell con- 
 centrate. It was here that Gesler's hat was supposed to have been 
 raised upon the pole, here Tell shot the apple from his son's head, and 
 here Tell was born. All this according to the legend which Schiller 
 has immortalized and which is now called in question by doubting 
 antiquarians. It is in vain that historians now declare that the hero 
 of Switzerland is a myth ; the peasants have believed in him too firmly 
 and for too many generations. It would be as easy to convince the 
 American that George Washington never existed. 
 
 The girls turned from the main part of the church to the sacristy, 
 where the costly gifts shown them testified to the faith of the princes 
 as well as peasants, and having viewed these, all strolled through the 
 town and a little way up the hill to secure the fine view. Again, by 
 some magic attraction, Alice and Lajos walked together; Margaret 
 and Cecilia following, and Mrs. Newton, the countess and the Judge 
 loitering far behind. There were so many people wandering in 
 different directions, that the three groups were presently separated, 
 and Alice and Lajos found themselves on a little eminence overlook- 
 ing the village and the merry crowd below. A chorus of male voices 
 was now lustily rendering " The Old Song of Tell," and the notes, 
 softened by distance, rose sweetly from the valley. " How beautiful it 
 all is!" Alice said; "but you do not seem to enjoy it; are you weary?" 
 
 " No ; I wish we might walk on so for the rest of our lives. I am 
 never tired with you. But now our paths separate for a time, and 
 when I think of walking on alone I realize suddenly that I am a 
 broken man, and that I am very weary." 
 
 Alice understood him, but showed no confusion. " Then you have 
 decided to go to Italy ? " she asked. 
 
 " Aunt has decided," he replied ; " but we shall not remain long, 
 and I shall join you at Baireuth before the Wagner festival is over. 
 I hope we may have the pleasure of your company as we sail down 
 the Danube. When do you return to your mission in Bulgaria ? " 
 
n6 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " The middle of next month ; I have made a long vacation and am 
 eager to return to my girls." 
 
 " Do you enjoy the work so very much ? " 
 
 " So much, that it seems to me that philanthropy is the only thing 
 
 worth living for." 
 
 " I have come to think so, 
 too. Tell me, Miss Alice, in 
 what way can a man like me 
 devote himself to his fellow-crea- 
 tures ? My career as a soldier 
 was spoiled by that ugly wound, 
 but I am not utterly disabled ; 
 I ought still to be able to do 
 good and worthy work' in the 
 world in some fashion. Shall I 
 turn missionary ? " 
 
 " Think of your home," Alice 
 replied ; " is there no way that 
 you can be a missionary to the 
 people on your own estate, those 
 for whom you are responsible, or 
 are they all in such comfortable 
 circumstances that they need to 
 have nothing done for them ? " 
 " The people of my own class need a good deal of evangelization, 
 I fear ; but there are the miners, the poor devils . who work the 
 lead mines, which give me my income. I have often thought of 
 bettering their condition which I know is sad enough. If you will 
 kindly visit my aunt on your way to Bulgaria, I will take you to the 
 mines, and we will see what can be done for the miners and their 
 families. The trouble is, that if I increase the miners' wages and 
 lessen their hours of work, fit up their homes, establish a school and 
 
 COSTUME OF PEASANT OF UNTERWALDEN. 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. I i 7 
 
 all that sort of thing, it will cost a great deal, and will really lessen 
 my income. We are running these mines in close competition with 
 other companies, and at a very small profit, and I must be careful or 
 I shall throw myself out of the race entirely. It is as if I had inher-» 
 ited a plantation of slaves ; emancipation to them means ruin to me." 
 
 " And yet can you hesitate ? " 
 
 " No ; I would not hesitate a moment if I were the only one con- 
 cerned. Unfortunately, I am only half owner in the mines ; the 
 property of a ward of my uncle's is entangled in these mines, and I 
 must give an account to her for my management of it. Again, if 
 I ruin myself financially, how are the miners to live when I can no 
 longer give them employment ? " 
 
 " Can you not introduce reforms gradually, and make their lives a 
 little more tolerable, if you cannot do all you wish at once ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I think I can. I do not need quite the amount which my 
 aunt insists that I must obtain from the mines. I can give up the 
 winter at Vienna for one thing ; and this is why I want your opinion 
 as to what it is best to do. That is, I shall want your opinion when 
 I see you next, for then many things will be settled which are now in 
 doubt. On the fifth of next August, by my uncle's will, there is 
 to be a settlement of the estate. I shall then know just where I 
 stand." 
 
 Alice looked at Lajos with keen disappointment. " Why does he 
 not tell me," she thought, " that he is betrothed to his uncle's ward ? 
 Surely we are sufficiently intimate for such a confidence." But Lajos 
 did not consider the disposal of his hand by his uncle's will as a valid 
 betrothal. He had no intention of carrying out the conditions, and 
 he was only impatient to see the young lady in order to make a satis- 
 factory rendering to her of her property. His aunt and he had made 
 every effort to find the missing heiress. They felt sure that the terms 
 of the will must be known to her, and that she would probably be heard 
 from by the fifth of August. If not, a certain portion of the property 
 
Il8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 would be set aside and held subject to her demand, while Lajos would 
 be free from all other obligations. 
 
 All of this passed through Lajos' mind, and seemed to make it 
 advisable for him to make no formal proposal until he could ask Alice 
 to help him make the best possible use of his fortune. If he were left 
 a poor man he fancied that he had resolved never to marry. Still, 
 chained as he was by circumstance, the opportunity was so tempting, 
 he could not let her go from him with no assurance of his deep affec- 
 tion, and he added earnestly, " Trust me, Alice ; wait for me until the 
 time that I have set, and believe, meantime, whatever happens, that I 
 love you devotedly." 
 
 Alice was deeply pained. It had seemed to Lajos that she must 
 understand his position and be happy in the confidence that he would 
 not rest until everything was satisfactorily arranged. But Alice did 
 not understand. She looked him through and through with her clear, 
 questioning eyes, and was dissatisfied. She believed his assurance 
 that he loved her, but it brought her no comfort ; for, if this were true, 
 what more natural than that he should openly and honorably ask her 
 hand in marriage ? And since he had not done this, she felt con- 
 vinced that the countess had told the truth, and that he was already 
 betrothed. She longed frankly to ask him what it all meant, but he 
 looked so true that she could not bring herself to tax him with double 
 dealing. Besides, there was no longer any opportunity for confidential 
 conversation. The girls were very near. " You make no comment, 
 Alice, on my last remark." 
 
 She smiled faintly. " It does not seem to me that you have said 
 a great deal." 
 
 " True enough," he replied, with a gay laugh. There was the least 
 possible spice of pique in her remark, and it gave him the assurance 
 which he wished. " Forget that I've said anything, until the fifth of 
 August." 
 
 He called gayly to the others to join them, and the chat became 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 II 9 
 
 general. It was evident that he had said more than he intended and 
 that he wished no reply. He began to talk to Margaret about the 
 wonderful engineering exhibited in the Axenstrasse, a magnificent 
 
 
 RAILWAY UP THE RIGI. 
 
 road which starts from Brunnen 
 and joins the St. Gothard road at 
 Altdorf. 
 
 The countess linked herself to Alice as they went down the hill, 
 and kept her at her side until the day was over. 
 
 The friends were destined to pass only a few more golden days 
 together. The ascent of the Rigi was the brightest of these, with a 
 glorious view from its summit, but this has been so frequently de- 
 scribed by other travellers that we shall omit an account of it here. 
 Margaret now felt that her visit to her aunt could not longer be 
 
1 20 ' THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 postponed, and as the Judge was quite ready, the two announced their 
 intention of proceeding to Zermatt. 
 
 The countess immediately decided that she would enjoy a short 
 sojourn at The Riffel in view of the grandest peaks of Switzerland, 
 She affected to be influenced by a wish to see the Matterhorn, which 
 Lajos had formerly expressed, though he now assured her that he 
 would rather do this at some other time, and that he had a strong 
 desire to attend the Wagner festival at Baireuth. 
 
 " Ah ! Wagner, Wagner! " replied the countess in a pet.- " Who is 
 it cares for Wagner ! You sail let ze stove-pipe fall, and make one 
 great explosion of dynamite in a shop of copper kettles, and you sail 
 enjoy ze music of Wagner. You show me zoze who prefer it to ze 
 Italian opera and I show you some imbeciles." 
 
 As Cecilia and Alice had just explained that they were devotees of 
 Wagner on their way to the festival, the remarks of aunt and nephew 
 were equally significant. 
 
 There was genuine regret in the parting of the girls. Cecilia and 
 Margaret had made an appointment to meet again at the Fete of the 
 Vignerons at Vevey, and to return to America together, but Alice 
 would go on to her work in that strange land so far from our knowl- 
 edge and thought, and they might never meet again. Margaret had 
 felt herself strongly drawn to her, and she admired her devotion and 
 self-sacrifice without having the slightest desire to emulate it. 
 
 The countess and Lajos with the Judge and Margaret now fol- 
 lowed down the valley of the Rhone to the Visp. From this poin 
 the scenery became very wild and rugged, a great contrast to th< 
 majestic but quiet beauty of the Lucerne region. At length tin 
 grand obelisk of the Matterhorn (called also Monte Cervin and Mont< 
 Silvio) rose defiantly before them like a milestone of eternity. 
 
 " To think of any one having the temerity to climb that mountain ! " 
 exclaimed Lajos ; " where is there the least crevice for the lodgmem 
 of human foot ? " 
 
THE TELL FESTIVAL. 
 
 121 
 
 " It cannot be as inaccessible as it appears," replied the Judge, 
 " since it has been climbed ; perhaps the other side is not so steep. 
 This is a very good point of view for a photograph, however." And 
 as he secured his negative, the old Judge fell in love with the moun- 
 tain which has lured so many adventurous climbers on to their de- 
 struction. " I am rather glad 
 that we are to stay in this 
 neighborhood for some time," 
 he said to himself. " I shall 
 find an opportunity before we 
 leave to ascend that mountain, 
 and there will be a fact worthy 
 of the summer." It was an 
 access of his old malady of 
 mania scandens, which Mar- 
 garet had fancied was cured, 
 and which was still destined 
 to give her grave anxiety. 
 The party were unusually 
 silent ; for it was necessary to 
 proceed much of the way in 
 single file, and every one was 
 occupied wth his own thoughts. 
 The countess was absorbed in 
 conjectures respecting Marga- 
 ret's relatives. " It is fortunate," 
 she thought, " that I shall be 
 
 able to see them for myself. She is probably well connected, and if 
 so, and if this niece of mine never appears, there shall be further 
 intercourse between these Lochwalders and myself." 
 
 They reached the Riffel Hotel in time for an early dinner, and 
 found Annette, who had come in to inquire if they had arrived. The 
 
 THE COMFORTS OF DONKEY-RIDING. 
 
I 2 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS W SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Judge, weary with his ride, counselled a halt until the next morning; 
 but Margaret was impatient to find her aunt at the Aim or summer 
 pasturage. " I will go on this afternoon with Annette, grandpa, and 
 we will send a guide to bring you, with the luggage, in the morning." 
 
 A couple of donkeys were obtained at the hotel for the short jour- 
 ney ; and they struck into a wild gorge, and followed the course of a 
 little stream, which brawled over a rocky bed. It was the famous 
 Zmvtthal, which has been described in the following graphic manner 
 by a well-known traveller : — 
 
 " Three mountain-glens unite at Zermatt to form the valley of the 
 Visp. Two are occupied by glaciers — great ice streams which, 
 sweeping down on either side of the Riffelberg, drain the amphi- 
 theatre of peaks dominated by Monte Rosa. The other glen, how- 
 ever, called the Zmvtthal, extends into the mountains for a distance 
 of about six miles, before the foot of the glacier is reached, between 
 the base of the Matterhorn on one side and of the Gabehorn on the 
 other. Paths exist on either side of the stream, which wind gently up 
 and down through noble pine woods, among the usual combinations 
 of boulders and rhododendrons, brushwood and fern, Alpine flowers 
 and mosses, among which creep and cling the great serpent-like roots 
 of the pines. The torrent roars in the ravine below, dashing, at one 
 place, through a magnificent gorge, which is spanned by a frail 
 bridge." 
 
 The character of the scenery had totally changed. The loveliness 
 of the lake was replaced by the sublime grandeur of stern snow-peaks 
 and savage passes, which seemed to tell of heroic adventure and en- 
 durance in the lives of the inhabitants of the region. Margaret felt 
 the stimulating influence of the surroundings. 
 
 " An entirely new stage setting," she said. . " Evidently a new act 
 in the drama is to be ushered in. I wonder what it will be." 
 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. \ 2$ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 
 
 She knew 
 She was not wise ; was conscious in herself 
 Of eager impulses that would have wrecked 
 Her whole heart's happiness a thousand times, 
 Had not some Power from. without herself 
 Shut down the sudden gates, and with its stern 
 " Thou shalt notV left her stunned, perhaps, but saved. 
 
 How could she help 
 
 Believe that God had stooped from highest heaven 
 
 To save her from herself. . ,„ _ 
 
 Alice Wellington Rollins. 
 
 MARGARET had felt a subtle premonition of the change which 
 was coming, as mariners feel the chill in the atmosphere which 
 announces the presence of an iceberg ; but she was far from 
 guessing the depth of poverty in which she would find her false 
 relatives plunged. 
 
 " Annette," she said, as they rode on together, " I feel certain that 
 you found my aunt in reduced circumstances. Is it not so ? " 
 
 Annette nodded grimly. 
 
 " I want to know something about her before I see her. Do not 
 be afraid of shocking me." 
 
 Annette, now that her revenge was within her grasp, was afraid to 
 take it. " She will leave us in a storm of rage, and that will be the 
 end of it," she thought. " It will be worth much to see her fury, but 
 all money advantage to us will then be lost. It would be harder for 
 her to have her humiliation come upon her by degrees. I think I will 
 adopt that plan," and she replied, aloud : — 
 
• 124 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Your o-reat-aunt has one son, a widower, who lives with her with 
 his two children. You would call them poor, but they consider them- 
 selves well off. You will not care to visit long with them, but you 
 can help them if you really care to do so." 
 
 Up, up, up. They had left the Zmutt 
 Thai and were climbing the slope of one 
 of the northern ranges. 
 
 " There is a fine view of the Matterhorn 
 and the southern mountains from the edge 
 of that cliff," Annette said. " If you like, 
 I will hold your donkey and you can dis- 
 mount and get it." 
 
 Margaret walked to the edge of the prec- 
 ipice which Annette had indicated. Off to 
 the south beautiful Italy was buried from 
 her view by a barrier of stern mountain 
 ranges, and she felt that the life of luxury 
 to which she was accustomed 
 was shut from her as well. 
 For a moment there was a 
 wild yearning for the past, 
 and a sinking of heart in 
 view of the future. If she 
 could have gone back she 
 would; for she stood upon 
 the brink of a precipice more 
 dangerous than the actual one 
 before her. But she realized 
 
 that it was too late ; and she looked up at the gigantic Matterhorn so 
 startlingly near. More than ever it seemed to her a milestone of eter- 
 nity, grim and terrible ; but as she looked, the sunset flush transformed 
 it into a thing of exquisite beauty. The deep rosy tint on the summit 
 
 ON THE BRINK OF A PRECIPICE. 
 
THE MATTERHORN. 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. I 27 
 
 grew more and more delicate until it was lost in the snowy white of 
 the sides, which again deepened into the cool green tints of the 
 shadows near the base. It seemed a colossal crystal of tourmaline 
 in its wonderful play of delicious color. Margaret was so absorbed 
 in the spectacle that Annette called her twice before her attention 
 was aroused. She came slowly away, all her nobler nature aroused 
 by the glorious spectacle. " Life may be stern here," she thought, 
 I but it must be heroic ; " and the lines, 
 
 " Better not be at all than not be noble," 
 
 flashed through her mind. 
 
 " I wonder if it is in me to do anything really grand," she thought. 
 f If my aunt is poor I will share her life, and see how these peas- 
 ants really live. I should not wonder if her simple pleasures were 
 really more enjoyable than the ennui of the rich." 
 
 Something which she had read of the lives of the Swiss came to 
 her mind, at this juncture. " Good, kind people, poetically minded, 
 delight themselves in imagining the happy life led by peasants, who 
 dwell by Alpine fountains. The time will come when, as the heavy 
 folded curtain falls upon our stage of life, we shall begin to compre- 
 hend that the felicity we sympathized in was intended to have been 
 bestowed." "Well," she thought, in answer to the admonition, "if 
 my aunt is not comfortable I will try to make her so. I am ashamed 
 that I have consulted my own selfish pleasure and have delayed com- 
 ing to her for so long, but I will try to do my duty all the more faith- 
 fully now." It was the beginning of a new life, indeed, for Margaret. 
 
 Annette had prepared her more thoroughly than she knew for the 
 ordeal before her, and Margaret had need of the preparation. The 
 sun had set when they paused at the door of a rude chalet. The 
 firelight gleamed within, and an old woman stood in the door peering 
 out into the darkness. Dogs barked as they approached, and two 
 children came bounding down the rocky path to meet them. 
 
I2 8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 u Go away, Nikolas; off with you, Katchen ! " Annette exclaimed, 
 roughly shaking her bridle, which one of them had grasped. A man 
 rose heavily from a bench in front of the house, and held the donkeys 
 while they dismounted. 
 
 "1st es wir Illicit duf" exclaimed the old woman, " Mein schatz, 
 kind meines brudersl" (Is it really thou, my treasure, child of my 
 brother?) Her face, though old and homely, showed so much real 
 delight that Margaret responded to her caresses by kissing her wrin- 
 kled cheek. 
 
 " This is thy cousin Yakob, named for thy grandfather, my loved 
 brother," the old woman continued, indicating the stolid-looking 
 peasant who held the donkeys, " and these are his children ; but come 
 in, come in, for I thought not to see thee in my poor house." 
 
 It was indeed a poor house, like most cow-keepers' chalets, occu- 
 pied only as a summer cottage while the animals were pastured on 
 the heights. Mother Lochwalder had a more comfortable and better- 
 stocked home in Zermatt where she passed her winters, but it did not 
 seem worth while to her to bring her household goods, the tall clock, 
 the best carved bedstead, the porcelain stove, the spinning-wheel, and 
 the stores of linen and pewter, on mule back up the mountains, to 
 their summer camping ground. Consequently the furnishings of the 
 first floor of the chalet, which was one great room, were of the simplest 
 kind. The chalet was built on a side hill, and the cow-stable and milk- 
 room occupied the basement. A fourth of the area of the living-room 
 was filled with hay, and there was a hole in the floor through which 
 it could be forked into the manners. A roug;h stone hearth was built 
 up on one side of the room, and here hung the great kettle used ii 
 heating the milk for cheese-making. Brightly scoured tin pans wen 
 ranged on a shelf near by, with a few cooking utensils of the rudesl 
 description. A large table with twisted legs stood in the centre of th( 
 room ; Mother Lochwalder's second-best bedstead, piled high witl 
 feather beds, in the corner opposite the hay, and the cheese-press ii 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. I 29 
 
 another corner. A faint smell of sour milk and of smoke was diffused 
 throughout the apartment ; but the room was clean, and as the two 
 doors and window were both open, the ventilation was good and the 
 odors not positively unendurable. Margaret approached the fire and 
 sat down upon a rude bench, overcome by the poverty of her aunt's 
 surroundings. Annette watched her keenly, with malicious triumph 
 in her expression. Mother Lochwalder bustled about, and placed on 
 the table a china bowl of rich cream and a loaf of brown bread. 
 Margaret ate mechanically, and as she was very hungry, the supper 
 seemed delicious. 
 
 " Will you have tea, my treasure ? " asked the old woman. " Annette 
 said you never drank it, but I have some excellent green tea with which 
 I indulge myself on Sundays. I have also a bottle of wine and some 
 sausages. Speak the word and I will cook them for you — delicious 
 little sausages. Katchen, bring the cheese ! " 
 
 " Yes, aunt, I would like to taste the cheese if you made it, but 
 never mind the sausages or the wine." Margaret spoke gently, and 
 Mother Lochwalder bustled about greatly delighted ; but the girl's mind 
 was in a turmoil of rebellion and dismay. When the old woman's 
 back was turned, a strange object which had been lying under the 
 table, its head pillowed on the dog, crept out and approached Margaret 
 on all fours. The girl uttered a shriek of fright ; for in the dusk of the 
 room, so hideous was the appearance of this unfortunate creature, 
 dwarfed, with long, unkempt hair, one of its bare feet twisted inward, 
 its clawlike fingers tapping her knee for recognition, that at first she 
 fancied that it was a great baboon. What added greatly to this 
 impression was the abnormally large ears which the dwarf had the 
 power of flapping grotesquely. A second glance, and the sensation of 
 fear gave place to one of loathing. That pale, old face was human 
 indeed, but rendered hideous by frightful contortions. The dwarf con- 
 tinued to pat her knee, at the same time chattering incoherently. 
 
 " Oh ! what is it ? " Margaret exclaimed. " Take it away, take it 
 away ! " 
 
130 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Annette laughed unpleasantly. " That is your cousin Nikolas," . 
 she said. Her revenge was complete, and a world of exultation was 
 expressed in her laugh. Tears were gathering in Margaret's eyes, and 
 Annette doubted not that they were tears of rage and humiliation ; but 
 she did not know Margaret. After the first horrified surprise, a great 
 wave of pity swept over the girl's heart. " Poor little thing," she said, 
 as Mother Lochwalder led the child away ; " can nothing be done for 
 him ? Is there no possible cure ? " 
 
 " There are asylums, but they cost money," said Yakob, the child's 
 father. 
 
 " I will pay for him," Margaret replied, promptly. " We will see 
 about it at once." 
 
 Annette was rather surprised at this turn of affairs, but she said to 
 herself, " Yes, indeed, my lady, you will pay for that and for much 
 more before you leave us. We will make all we can out of your brief 
 visit ; for you want to get away from us as soon as you can. I see 
 it in your eyes." 
 
 Margaret rose from the table. " I am very tired," she said, in a 
 voice which trembled a little in spite of the strong control which she 
 endeavored to place upon herself. " I think I had better bid you all 
 good-night." 
 
 Annette lighted a candle, and led the way up a rude staircase, 
 which was hardly more than a ladder, to the loft above. A partition 
 across one end made a bed-ro6m, wide enough, but so low that Mar- 
 garet could only stand upright in the centre. The bed, with home- 
 spun blue coverlet, looked clean and inviting. An earthen jug of 
 fresh water and a brown earthenware bowl were placed on a box, 
 which served as dressing-table. . A coarse but clean towel lay beside 
 it ; but the place where one might have expected to find a mirror was 
 filled by a gaudy print of the Virgin, Our Lady of Poverty. And this 
 was all the furnishing which the room contained, with the exception 
 of Margaret's hand-bag. 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 131 
 
 " Good-night, cousin," said Annette maliciously, as she placed the 
 candle in the centre of the wash-bowl, and turned to leave the room. 
 
 The word stabbed through Margaret's stupor like a sword-thrust. 
 " Cousin ! " she exclaimed ; " my cousin ! Impossible ! " 
 
 " I am the child of Yakob Lochwalder's sister. Your aunt is my 
 grandmother. I am as nearly related to you as the rest," Annette 
 replied doggedly. 
 
 This was the unkindest cut of all. Margaret had accepted the old 
 peasant woman as her aunt ; had accepted the poverty of the hut ; 
 had accepted even the poor dwarf; but Annette! — her whole nature 
 revolted, and for the first time the old volcanic temper surged to the 
 surface. She was ready to shriek, " It is a lie ! I do not believe it. 
 I never will recognize you as my cousin." By a strong effort she 
 repressed the words; but she was too much agitated to make any 
 other reply, and turning quickly, she walked to the window, pretend- 
 ing to look out into the night, but seeing nothing. Annette had ex- 
 pected an angry outburst, and was disappointed. Perhaps Margaret 
 had not heard. 
 
 " Good-night, cousin," she said again ; " since we are relatives, we 
 should also be friends." 
 
 Margaret had partly recovered herself in that brief interval. " As 
 true friends as relatives," she said, simply extending her hand. It was 
 a chance remark, but it struck home. Did Margaret suspect ? 
 
 In spite of her effrontery, Annette was cowed, and she left the 
 room sullenly. Margaret waited only until Annette had descended 
 the ladder to sink upon the bed and indulge in a passion of hysterical 
 weeping. She was overwrought, physically and mentally; but sleep 
 came presently, to unbend the strained faculties, and give her strength 
 for the trials still to come. 
 
 When she awoke, the sun was shining through a hole in the wall, 
 — it could hardly be called a window, — and the child Katchen was 
 tapping at her door. 
 
132 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Lady cousin, lady cousin," said Katchen, " I have brought you 
 some edelweiss. Grandmother said you would like it." 
 
 Margaret rubbed her eyes, and for a moment could not realize the 
 situation. It all came back to her with a glance at Our Lady of 
 Poverty. " Come here, little girl," she said ; " I want to look at you." 
 
 The child approached timidly. She was a pretty, flaxen-haired 
 little creature, with eyes as blue as German forget-me-nots, and sturdy 
 
 legs, red from paddling that morning 
 in a mountain-brook. On the whole 
 Margaret was pleased with her ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 " I foresee that we shall have fine 
 times together, little Katchen," she 
 said. " Will you take me to walk 
 with you this morning?" 
 
 " Yes, heartily ; but first you must 
 
 come to breakfast. We have meat ; for 
 
 father killed a steinbock this morning. 
 
 He says it is a sign that you have 
 
 brought us luck, for they are rare — 
 
 very rare — and he has not been able 
 
 to shoot one before this season. They 
 
 would give him ten dollars for it below 
 
 at the hotel, but he says he will not sell his luck. Hurry, lady ; do 
 
 you not smell the meat frying ? O blessed saints ! is it not good ? " 
 
 Margaret hastened her toilet, and was about to descend, but the 
 
 child lingered. " What is it, Katchen ? " she asked. 
 
 " Aren't you going to pray to Our Lady of Poverty before you go 
 down ? " 
 
 Margaret felt rebuked, and replied, " Yes, dear, I will pray, but not 
 to Our Lady of Poverty. We will pray to the God of all riches, who 
 is able to make us rich." And falling upon her knees, she asked for 
 
 KATCHEN. 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 
 
 grace sufficient for that day, and even as she prayed received the 
 answer ; for Katchen softly opened the little window, and the rush 
 of pure, cool air across her face seemed to her the swift sweeping of 
 the wings of angels sent to strengthen her. 
 
 " Look at the mountain," Katchen said, as she rose from her 
 knees; and Margaret noticed for the first time that the window framed 
 a magnificent view of the Weisshorn — a shining crystal miracle in a 
 circle of billowy clouds, the morning mists apparently cleft through 
 by a wedge of transparent glass. Again there came to her the 
 exuberant uplifting of soul which she had felt on the Wengern Alp. 
 
 " I cannot fail to be noble in 
 such noble surroundings," she 
 thought ; and twining an arm 
 around Katchen, she joined the 
 family below. Honest Yakob 
 was smoking his porcelain pipe ; 
 but he shut down its silver lid 
 with a snap as she approached. 
 " Good morning, cousin," he said 
 heartily. " My daughter Annette 
 here says that our ways are not 
 fine enough for you, but we have 
 a breakfast this morning that is 
 fit for a kaiser. I went hunting 
 once with the grand duke of 
 Baden, who was spending a 
 summer at The Riffel. We had 
 no such luck as this." 
 
 Mother Lochwalder laughed. 
 "Yakob is always talking about that hunt with the grand duke," she 
 said. "One would fancy that Yakob was one of the invited guests, 
 when in reality he was only a pack animal like the other donkeys. 
 
 YAKOB LOCHWALDER. 
 
134 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 It is well said, one must never believe a Jagdgeschichte" (story of a 
 huntsman). 
 
 Margaret expressed her appreciation and seated herself at the table 
 as Katchen drew up a chair for her. 
 
 " Nay, come first without and see the creature's head. I have cut it 
 off to take to Zermatt, to the taxidermist below there. He will mount 
 it, and sell it to some traveller who will boast that he has killed the 
 steinbock — the liar. It is not every one who is quick enough to 
 bring down a creature like that, even if he has the luck to see him." 
 
 " Yes, take the head to the taxidermist," Margaret replied ; " but do 
 not sell it. My grandfather will be glad to buy it of you, and it will 
 be glory enough for him to tell his friends that he has eaten a steak 
 from the animal." 
 
 Nikolas stood outside the chalet looking at the head of the stein- 
 bock. The poor deformed creature was scarcely less repulsive by day- 
 light than when Margaret had first seen him ; but she repressed a 
 shudder, and spoke to him kindly. 
 
 " Horns, horns," he said, pointing to the long, curving horns of the 
 steinbock or ibex. 
 
 " He has some intelligence," Margaret exclaimed, eagerly; "he is 
 not an utter cretin." 
 
 " Oh, no," replied the father ; " mother will have it that he knows 
 more than he can tell, but that he is bewitched, the unfortunate, by 
 the same spell which killed his mother, who died when he was born. 
 Better he had died and she had lived, for she was a good woman — 
 my heart's love — my angel ! " 
 
 Mother Lochwalder now appeared, and urged Margaret to take her 
 breakfast, which she was very willing to do. The pleasant sunshine 
 and bracing air gave a different aspect to the situation, and she felt 
 herself better able to cope with it than the evening before. • She gave 
 only a distant nod to Annette, however, who wisely kept herself in the 
 background. The meat of the steinbock was strong and tough, but 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 1 35 
 
 she praised it, and assured Mother Lochwalder that her grandfather 
 would be delighted to have some for dinner. " And now," she said, 
 after the breakfast was over, " I do not want to be a burden to you 
 while we stay, so you must let us pay our board as we would have to 
 do anywhere else." 
 
 " Annette said you would not want to stay long," Yakob replied in 
 surprise, while Annette herself drew near and listened wonderingly. 
 
 " This is just the region for my grandfather ; he determined before 
 we set out on this journey that he would like to do some mountaineer- 
 ing in the neighborhood of Zermatt. He is not fit to climb moun- 
 tains ; but if you can guide him where it is safe for him to go, it will 
 be a great pleasure to him, and a great relief to me, and he will pay 
 you well for it." 
 
 A look of great delight passed over Yakob's countenance. " My 
 father was a guide before me and his brother, your other grandfather, 
 was also a guide, none better in Switzerland. I, too, am qualified to 
 be a guide ; for I have twice climbed the Matterhorn ; but no one has 
 ever hired me, no one would trust me after my uncle " — he hesitated 
 — " after my uncle went to America. And so the nearest I ever came 
 to being a guide was when the grand duke's huntsman engaged me to 
 drive the pack mule that was to carry the game. Heillige Johannis ! 
 but it was a light load altogether ! But now if I am seen guiding a 
 rich American, and carrying him safely through the season, it will be 
 a start in business for me for the rest of my life." 
 
 The honest fellow's happiness was pleasant to see. " And now," 
 continued Margaret, " as I promised my grandfather to send for him 
 this morning, we must settle on what provision we can make for his 
 comfort. As he will be out of doors nearly all the time, his wants 
 will be simple. He will be satisfied with my little bed-room under 
 the roof, with the few additions which I can easily make, if you can 
 tuck me away somewhere else. Can I not share Annette's room ? " 
 
 Annette uttered an exclamation of astonishment. Was it possible 
 
I 36 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 that this proud girl had come to this, and that she was willing to 
 room with her former serving-maid ? So thunderstruck was she, that 
 she did not reply. Margaret thought that she was offended by her 
 coldness on the preceding evening, and her impulsive nature, which 
 would never permit her to do anything by halves, prompted her to say, 
 " I think you will find me more agreeable, Cousin Annette, than in 
 our old relations." 
 
 " But you cannot sleep together," said Mother Lochwalder, " for 
 Annette and Katchen sleep with me, and three in one bed are enough. 
 We have no rooms but those you have seen. Yakob and Nikolas 
 sleep on the hay in the corner." 
 
 " Perhaps your grandfather would be more comfortable at the 
 hotel in the valley," Yakob suggested. 
 
 "I do not like to have him away from me," Margaret explained. 
 " Can I not hire furniture enough to fit up the other end of the loft 
 as a bed-room ? " 
 
 " We have furniture in plenty at the house in Zermatt," said Mother 
 Lochwalder. " Annette, go down with thy father and see that a cart 
 is loaded with my best carved bedstead and plenty of bedding, and all 
 other things necessary, and bring it up this very day." 
 
 " Good," said Yakob, " we will start immediately, and Katchen, yoi 
 must help your grandmother mind the cows while I am gone. I will 
 bring back a herds-boy from the village that I may be the freer to 
 tramp it with his excellency." 
 
 They set out at once, the head of the steinbock — a trophy. of which 
 Yakob was very proud — hanging over his shoulder. 
 
 When they had gone, Mother Lochwalder took down her alpen- 
 stock and her knitting, and went out to watch the cows, grumbling a 
 little to herself as she went that if it were not for this duty she would 
 scrub the floor of the living-room, and make all more fitting for the 
 reception of the gracious gentleman who was to be their guest. 
 
 " What must be done for the cows? Can I do it ?" Margaret asked. 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. I 37 
 
 " Simply to sit in the pasture yonder, and watch that none of them 
 stray, or break into the enclosed yard where the fodder is kept. If 
 any of them attempt to do this, call me, and I will come and help you." 
 
 Margaret took the alpenstock and sat down on a stone in a corner 
 of the pasture. About twenty cows and a dozen calves were feeding 
 within a short distance. In her heart she was a miserable coward, but 
 she tried to assume a courageous aspect. Katchen was in a talkative 
 mood, and told over the names of the cows. " That is Brown Velvet," 
 said Katchen, pointing to a beautiful young creature with a hide like 
 black plush brindled with fawn-color. " She wears the silver bell, and 
 she knows that she is princess. All the others follow her, and none 
 of them would dare to take the lead, nor would the others follow a 
 cow that did not wear the bell. You should see the cows when they 
 set out for the Aim in the early summer. The instant the collars are 
 placed on their necks they understand, and range themselves in order 
 of procession, and it is just so when we leave the Aim in the fall to 
 return to the valley." 
 
 " But there are other cows wearing bells," Margaret remarked. 
 
 " Yes, but only one silver bell. Listen ; its tinkle is different from 
 the rest, and as it is larger, the sound is louder and clearer. The other 
 bells are all tuned to chime with the leader's. Grandmother paid 
 thirty dollars for the set. See the beautiful red embroidery on the 
 collars ! " 
 
 " If all the other cows follow the leader, I should think it would be 
 very important that she should be a well-behaved creature, not given 
 to gadding about." 
 
 " She is, and so teachable, at the first sound of the yodel she will 
 leave the richest clover, and follow. Nikolas, yodel for our lady 
 cousin, and show her how Brown Velvet will come ! " 
 
 " Pray, do not ! " Margaret exclaimed. " I had much rather she 
 would stay where she is." 
 
 " Nikolas can yodel so beautifully," said Katchen. " You must 
 
I 38 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 hear him some day, but he is afraid to do it unless he is told to ; for 
 once he led the cows into a distant ravine and gave father trouble to 
 find them." 
 
 Nikolas sprang from the ground and went through the pantomime 
 of yodelling without uttering a sound. 
 
 " Not now, good Nikolas," Margaret entreated. The strange 
 creature replied with many uncouth contortions, and, turning a hand- 
 spring, capered away toward the other side of the pasture. 
 
 " Ought we not to watch him and keep him from straying as well 
 as the cows ? " Margaret asked. 
 
 " Nikolas ? Oh, no ! he goes where he will, and he is never lost. 
 Do see him now ! he has climbed that tree like a squirrel." 
 
 They chatted on for a little while, when Margaret was startled by 
 a low bellowing, and looking up saw a huge bull between them and 
 the chalet, and trotting directly toward them. " O Katchen ! " she 
 exclaimed, " what shall we do ? " 
 
 " It is Schreckhorn who has got out of his pen. Run, run ! " shouted 
 Katchen, suiting the action to the word ; but Margaret was paralyzed 
 with terror, and could not move. She did not notice that the bull 
 was attracted not by herself, but by Brown Velvet who was quietly 
 feeding just beyond her. On came the bull, when suddenly, clear 
 and distinct across the pasture, like the warbling of some strange bird, 
 sounded the yodel. Brown Velvet shook her silver bell and trotted in 
 the direction of Nikolas, who had scrambled down out of his tree and 
 skipped along with many strange antics, yodelling as he went. The 
 bull turned abruptly and followed Brown Velvet, and Margaret, re- 
 stored to the possibility of action by her release, ran quickly to the 
 chalet. Mother Lochwalder, mop in hand, ran to the pasture and 
 succeeded in getting the bull inside the pen which he had quitted ; 
 but Margaret was too much unstrung to watch the cows any longer 
 that day. She believed that Nikolas had seen her danger and had 
 yodelled with the intention of drawing away the bull. Her gratitude 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 
 
 139 
 
 was excited, and her respect for his intelligence heightened. " He is 
 not idiotic, I am sure of that," she said to herself, and when he came 
 into the chalet she called him to her and tried to draw him into con- 
 versation. But he was either more wanting than she had thought, or 
 else he was wilfully perverse ; for he would not reply, but retired to his 
 favorite resting-place under the table, and sat there nursing his knees, 
 with the dancing firelight re- 
 
 flected in his eyes, till they 
 glowed like coals, and he re- 
 minded her of one of the little 
 mountain gnomes which the 
 Germans love to imagine. 
 
 The next event of the day, 
 which followed almost imme- 
 diately, was the arrival of her 
 grandfather. He did not come 
 on foot with Yakob, as she had 
 anticipated, but in a carriage, 
 and accompanied by the count- 
 ess and Lajos. Margaret had 
 not expected a visit from them. 
 She fancied that she had parted 
 from her friends finally the 
 
 night before. Indeed, so much emotion and such an entirely new 
 range of experience had been crowded into the past twenty-four hours, 
 that she could hardly realize that it was only on the preceding after- 
 noon that she had left the countess at the Riffel Hotel. 
 
 The countess raised her lorgnette as she entered the chalet, and 
 looked about her with undisguised scorn. 
 
 " So this is your aunt's abode ! " she exclaimed in good German, 
 abandoning her attempts at English, as she always did when greatly 
 excited. " And where is the lady ? " 
 
 A GOATHERD OF THE ZERMATT VALLEY. 
 
r^O THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " She is herding the cows in the pasture," Margaret replied, holding 
 her head very high, and fearing that the countess might mistake the 
 flush of indignation on her cheeks for a blush of shame. 
 
 "So — a fine accomplishment, indeed! " Yakob entered the house, 
 r and hune his hat above his or Un . "And is that boor also related to 
 
 5 " 
 
 you r 
 
 " He is my cousin." 
 
 The countess laughed in a disagreeable manner. " And why, when 
 you conferred upon us the honor of your acquaintance, did you not 
 inform us of the distinguished station of your honorable family ? " 
 
 " I did not know it myself, madame." 
 
 " A likely story." 
 
 " If my relatives and their home displease you, may I be permitted 
 to remind you, madame, that you are an uninvited guest ? " 
 
 " Highty, tighty ! But I like you the better for standing up for 
 your people. Merciful heavens, what have we here ? " Nikolas had 
 crept from under the table, and was feeling of the countess's robe, as 
 he had felt of Margaret's the night before. " What, is it a family of 
 idiots? Take the loathsome creature away!" It was only twenty- 
 four hours since Margaret had been moved by a similar impulse of 
 revolt, but she sprang now to the boy's side, and led him tenderly 
 away from the countess, lifting the, slight, misshapen figure to a seat 
 beside her on the hearth. " My cousin Nikolas is deformed, but he 
 is not an idiot," she said. " He was quick-witted enough this morning 
 to save my life, and I should be base not to love him for it." 
 
 " Ah ! you mean that I have forgotten that you saved my life." 
 
 " No, madame, I had forgotten it myself ; besides, it was not I, but 
 Alice, who did it." 
 
 " There, there, don't get angry. One would think you belonged to 
 my family by the way you fly into a temper. It is no fault of yours, 
 child,, that your relatives are not presentable. I like you, and I have a 
 proposition to make to you. Give them a little money. Buy from 
 
OUR LADY OF POVERTY. 141 
 
 them a promise that they will never trouble you again. Cut yourself 
 loose from them, and I will adopt you ; for I have given up all hope of 
 rinding my friend's niece. You shall take her place in my heart and 
 my fortune. Come ! I am a fiery-tempered old lady, but I love you. 
 That is your aunt, I presume, with the pail of swill. Which of us do 
 you prefer ? " 
 
 There was a yearning tenderness in the countess's voice, which 
 moved Margaret in spite of her indignation. 
 
 " Pardon me, dear countess, but it is not a matter of preference," 
 she replied, kindly. " We do not choose our relatives. God gives 
 them to us and us to them. I thank you more than I can tell, but this 
 is my place, and I must stay here." 
 
 " I said well that it was a family of idiots," exclaimed the countess. 
 " I believe you are an idiot yourself. Lajos, your arm. Conduct me to 
 the carriage." 
 
 Lajos obeyed, and Margaret thought that he too had cast her off ; 
 but a moment afterward he returned. 
 
 " Miss Margaret," he said, respectfully, " allow me to assure you of 
 my profound admiration." 
 
 " And gratitude ? " Margaret added, mischievously, though the tears 
 trembled on her lashes. " Are you so glad that I did not accept the 
 countess's offer ? " 
 
 " No, truly. I wish with all my heart that we had any one in our 
 family so truly noble. Can you not come with us now, and later 
 explain everything ? " 
 
 " No, Lajos, I cannot repudiate my relatives." 
 
 " Good by, then, friend Margaret. I am proud to call you so." 
 
 " Good by, friend Lajos." 
 
 The Judge, who had been listening in an utterly dazed manner, 
 now asked Margaret to explain what it all meant. Margaret did so, 
 and he assumed a judicial expression. " As between the plaintiff, the 
 honorable Countess de Krajova and the defendant cow-keeperess 
 
142 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Lochwalder," he said, stroking his beard with a sly twinkle in his 
 gray eyes. " As between the claims of these ladies, the court, without 
 having seen the said cow-keeperess, renders its decision in favor of 
 the defendant ; for," he added, " that countess is a vixen and any 
 variety of woman-kind would be pleasanter as a relative." 
 
 Mother Lochwalder entered at this juncture and was duly pre- 
 sented, but as the Judge could not speak German or Mother Loch- 
 walder English, their greetings were confined to bows and curtsies. 
 
 While Mother Lochwalder was preparing dinner, Margaret told 
 her grandfather of the head of the steinbock which had been sent 
 away to be mounted for him. She led him out upon the balcony, and 
 made him admire the superb view, and even ventured with him into 
 the cow-yard where Yakob was milking, showed him Brown Velvet 
 and the chime of silver bells and told him of the adventure of the 
 day. Then they went in to supper and the worthy man enjoyed a 
 piece of broiled steinbock followed by Swiss cheese, coffee and mar- 
 malade — "a dinner fit for a king ! " he declared. 
 
 Shortly after, Annette appeared before the chalet with an ox-cart 
 loaded with household furniture, and the remainder of the eventful 
 day was employed in converting the loft into a bed-room for the 
 Judge. 
 
 The good man was delighted with everything. " It is like rough- 
 ing it in the Rockies," he confided to Margaret, " and will make a 
 capital episode in my lecture." 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 143 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 Here it may well seem to the traveller if there be sometimes hardships, there must be at 
 least innocence and peace, and fellowship of the human soul with nature. It is not so. The 
 wild goats that leap along those rocks have as much passion of joy in all that fair work of God, 
 as the men that toil among them ; perhaps more. They do not understand so much as the name 
 of beauty or of knowledge. They understand dimly that of virtue. Love, patience, hospitality, 
 faith — these things they know. To glean their meadows side by side, so happier ; to bear the 
 burden up the breathless mountain flank unmurmuringly ; to bid the stranger drink from their 
 vessel of milk ; to see at the foot of their low death-beds a pale figure upd. a cross dying also 
 patiently, — in this they are different from the cattle and the stones. — Ruskin. 
 
 MARGARET began at once to assist in the regular home work 
 at the chalet. There was plenty to be done. While Yakob, 
 having performed the morning milking, was away on long 
 tramps with the Judge, it was necessary that some one should watch 
 the cows, and as Margaret had had enough of this occupation, Annette 
 usually undertook it, and Margaret relieved Mother Lochwalder by 
 making the cheese, while Katchen did the morning churning. There 
 were so many operations in the cheese-making, that it occupied nearly 
 all the forenoon. A trap-door led from the living-room to the milk- 
 room which opened from the stable. The Judge had been their guest 
 but a few days before he showed Yakob how to conduct a stream of 
 water from a neighboring brook through the dairy, making a cool canal 
 in which the milk-pans could stand, and to lead it after it had done 
 this service into a trough in front of the noses of the cattle so as to 
 do away with the drudgery of bringing water to them. The Judge 
 was much amused by their primitive methods of carrying on their 
 work, and was constantly inventing and suggesting labor-saving 
 
144 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 machines. It was a difficult feat to climb the ladder from the dairy 
 with a milk-pan in one's hands, and after Margaret had spilled several, 
 the Judge constructed a rude dumb-waiter, by which the milk could 
 be hoisted to a height from which it could be easily poured into the 
 great cauldron, into which it must be warmed before it could be con- 
 verted into Swiss cheese. Mother Lochwalder would then put in the 
 rennet, and Margaret would stir it continually for half an hour when 
 it would be curdled, and could be strained and the curds put in the 
 press. Then the whey must be carried out to the pigs, and the churn, 
 milk-pails, and pans washed and scoured. All of this Margaret took 
 upon herself, while Mother Lochwalder performed the other house- 
 hold duties. Then there was the task of turning the heavy cheeses 
 and rubbing them with salt, and after that her labor for the day was 
 over. Annette had brought up the spinning-wheel with the other 
 furniture from Zermatt, and after their noonday meal Mother Loch- 
 walder would sit in front of the house and spin, while Katchen would 
 knit interminable stockings. Margaret chose this time to instruct the 
 children. She found that Nikolas had one talent of no mean order. 
 Among Mother Lochwalder's treasures was a fine zither; on this 
 Nikolas would play by the hour, pouncing upon the strings with his 
 misshapen clawlike fingers and bringing out weird strains, imitations 
 of the wind and of the cries of birds. On Sundays there were 
 generally visitors at the Aim ; their nearest neighbors from other 
 pastures, or old friends from Zermatt. Frequently a musician was 
 found among them who would touch the zither while the others sang 
 the Alpine ballads. A plaintive one was the farewell to the Aim. 
 
 " Farewell to the pastures 
 So sunny and bright ; 
 The herdsman must leave you 
 When summer takes flight. 
 
 " We shall come to the mountains again, when the voice 
 Of the cuckoo is heard, bidding all things rejoice ; 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 145 
 
 When the earth dons her fairest and freshest array, 
 And the streamlets are flowing in beautiful May. 
 
 " To pastures and meadows, 
 Farewell, then, once more ! 
 The herdsman must go, 
 For the summer is o'er." 
 
 During the singing of these songs Nikolas would sit spellbound, 
 and after the visitors had departed would often reproduce them in 
 part upon the zither. One day 
 Margaret thought of the music- 
 box which her grandfather had 
 purchased in Geneva, and she 
 set it in motion before Nikolas. 
 It really seemed as if the little 
 fellow would go wild with delight. 
 He hugged it in his arms, and 
 capered and danced ; then car- 
 ried it under the table, and lay 
 down with it beneath his head. 
 Very patiently Margaret set her- 
 self to teach him some of the 
 rudiments of music. She was 
 able to hire a poor piano in 
 Zermatt, and she had it brought 
 to the chalet and placed near the 
 
 cheese-press. It was a difficult task, but she never wearied ; for she felt 
 sure of ultimate success. Annette, though apparently absorbed in her 
 embroidery-frame and in tending the cows, watched her narrowly. 
 She had not had the pleasure of seeing Margaret betrayed into a 
 single exhibition of temper; and she could not help feeling that she 
 was thwarted in her revenge, while she wondered what had come 
 over the girl, and still regarded her with cold suspicion and hatred. 
 
 YAKOB ACCEPTS HIS RELATIVES. 
 
1 46 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " I tell you,' 1 Yakob had said, when alone with his daughter, " I 
 heard her, with my own ears, refuse the offer of that great lady to be 
 taken away with her, and to be adopted as her niece." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Annette. " Did she refuse to be the niece of 
 the countess ? And for what reason ? " 
 
 " Because, as she said, she preferred to share the lot of her own 
 people. Ah ! blood is stronger than water. She has proved herself 
 a true Lochwalder. I did not think, from what you said, that I would 
 like her or her grandfather ; but they are as good as any of us. So 
 here's to them, say I," and lifting a huge porcelain tankard of beer to 
 his lips, he drained it to the dregs in honor of his new relations. 
 
 A feeling of shame came over Annette for the first time. So long 
 as she was sure that Margaret would revolt at the relationship, and 
 disown it if possible, she had felt no compunction for her deception ; 
 but that she should accept the situation so sweetly was something 
 utterly beyond her conception, and it grew more and more galling as 
 the days went on. 
 
 No better guide could have been found for the erratic Judge than 
 Yakob Lochwalder. He took him on trips suited to his strength, — 
 on short and easy ones at first, — or else prevailed upon him to make 
 the longer expeditions on mule-back. For a time, the Judge enjoyed 
 these safe excursions immensely ; but after a time they failed to 
 satisfy him. The Matterhorn was always before him, exercising the 
 same fateful fascination which it had wielded over so many unfortu- 
 nate travellers. It was in vain that he was told of the accidents which 
 had occurred to experienced mountaineers while vainly attempting its 
 ascent. He was madly bent upon it. The summit had been really 
 attained by Mr. Edward Whymper, and the Judge insisted on fol- 
 lowing his example. 
 
 In her endeavor to disenchant her grandfather Margaret read hii 
 one evening Mr. Whymper's account of his repeated trials and his 
 final ascent, at once so successful and so disastrous, since they sue- 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 147 
 
 ceeded at the expense of the death of four of the party. No descrip- 
 tion of the Matterhorn gives so perfect an idea of its charm and its 
 danger as this thrilling story, and we insert it here : — 
 
 "We started," says Edward Whymper, "from Zermatt on the 13th 
 of July, 1865, at half-past five on a perfectly cloudless morning. We 
 were eight in number. [Lord Francis Douglas, Messrs. Hudson, 
 Hadow, and Whymper, and the guides, Michel Croz and Peter Taug- 
 walder and his son.] On the first day we did not intend to ascend 
 to any great height, and we mounted very leisurely. At half-past 
 eleven we arrived at the base of the actual peak. Before twelve we 
 had found a good position for the tent at a height of eleven thousand 
 feet. Long after dusk the cliffs echoed with our laughter and the 
 songs of the guides. 
 
 " We assembled together outside the tent before dawn on the 
 morning of the 14th, and started directly it was light. On turning to 
 the eastern face, the whole of the great slope was revealed, rising for 
 three thousand feet, like a huge natural staircase. 
 
 "At 9.55 we arrived at the foot of that part which from Zermatt 
 seems perpendicular or overhanging, and could no longer continue on 
 the eastern side. By common consent we turned to the right or 
 northern side. The work became difficult, and required caution. 
 The general slope of the mountain was less than forty degrees ; and 
 snow had accumulated in it, and filled the interstices of the rock face, 
 leaving only occasional fragments projecting here and there. These 
 were at times covered with a thin film of ice. This solitary, difficult 
 part was of no great extent. A long stride around a rather awkward 
 corner brought us to snow once more. The last doubt vanished. 
 The Matterhorn was ours ! Croz now took the tent-pole, and planted 
 it in the highest snow. ' Yes,' we said, ' there is the flagstaff ; but 
 where is the flag ? ' ' Here it is,' he answered, pulling off his blouse, 
 and fixing it to the stick. It made a poor flag ; and there was no 
 wind to float it out, yet it was seen all around. They saw it at 
 
1 48 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Zermatt, at The Riffel, in the Val Tournache. At Breuil the watchers 
 cried, ' Victory is ours ! ' 
 
 " We remained on the summit for one hour, — ' one crowded hour 
 of glorious life.' It passed away too quickly, and we began to prepare 
 for the descent. 
 
 " We agreed that it would be best for Croz to go first, and Hadow 
 second; Hudson, who was almost equal to a guide, wished to be third; 
 Lord F. Douglas was placed next, and old Peter Taugwalder, the 
 strongest of the remainder, after him. A few minutes later I tied 
 myself to young Peter, ran down after the others, and caught them 
 just as they were commencing the descent of the difficult part. Great 
 care was being taken, only one man moving at a time. Lord F. 
 Douglas asked me to tie on to old Peter, as he feared that he would 
 not be able to hold his ground if a slip occurred. No one was actually 
 descending when Mr. Hadow slipped, fell against Croz, and knocked 
 him over. I heard one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him 
 and Mr. Hadow flying downward. In another moment Hudson was 
 dragged from his steps, and Lord F. Douglas immediately after him. 
 All this was the work of a moment. Immediately we heard Croz's 
 exclamation, old Peter and I planted ourselves as firmly as the rocks 
 would permit. The rope was taut between us, and the jerk came on 
 us both as on one man. We held, but the rope broke midway between 
 Taugwalder and Lord Francis Douglas. For a few seconds we saw 
 our unfortunate companions sliding downward on their backs, and 
 spreading out their hands, endeavoring to save themselves. They 
 passed from our sight uninjured, disappeared one by one, and fell from 
 precipice to precipice on to the Matterhorn gletscher below, a distance 
 of nearly four thousand feet in height. From the moment the rope 
 broke it was impossible to help them. For more than two hours 
 afterward I thought every moment that the next would be my last ; 
 for the Taugwalders, utterly unnerved, were not only incapable of 
 giving assistance, but were in such a state that a slip might have been 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 149 
 
 THE ACCIDENT ON THE MATTERHORN. 
 
 expected from one or the other at any moment. Immediately on my 
 arrival at Zermatt I sent to the President of the Commune, and 
 
150 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 requested him to send as many men as possible to ascend heights, 
 whence the spot could be commanded where I knew the four must 
 have fallen. By 8.30 Sunday morning we had got within sight of the 
 corner, in which we knew my companions must be. As we saw one 
 weather-beaten man after another raise the telescope, turn deadly pale, 
 and pass it on without a word to the next, we knew that all hope was 
 gone." 
 
 The bodies of the unfortunate men, with the exception of Lord 
 Francis Douglas, were recovered and buried at Zermatt. 
 
 Margaret translated the account into German for the benefit of 
 Mother Lochwalder. " Ah, yes ! " she said, " I remember that expedi- 
 tion well, and how every one said, l This will put an end to the foolish 
 risking of life in attempting to climb the mountain.' But, no; there 
 were more attempts than ever. The young men of Zermatt were crazy 
 to say that they had accomplished it, and not the young men only, but 
 the young women also ; and Theresa Carrel, the daughter of a noted 
 guide, really got to the top. I warrant you she had offers of marriage 
 in plenty after that. Then Professor Tyndal, who was often in the val- 
 ley, and had tried it time and time again, would not be beaten by this 
 Mr. Whymper, and at last he succeeded. And then some Italians 
 gained the summit from the south. And after that every dandy who 
 came into the valley with an alpenstock must needs try ; but only one 
 out of a hundred succeeds, though they have cut out a path and fastened 
 chains along the face of that slippery rock where the mountaineers you 
 read of met their death. But look you, it is no pleasure excursion still. 
 Tell your grandfather to be warned by us, and not to attempt it ; for 
 this family has woful cause to dread the Matterhorn. It was fleeing 
 from the revenge of the Matterhorn that your other grandfather, my 
 brother, went to America ; and now it seems as if the mountain had 
 drawn one of your family back by an evil spell to wreak its doom upon 
 him." 
 
 " How was it, Mother Lochwalder ? " Margaret asked. " I have 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 151 
 
 often wondered what caused my grandfather Lochwalder to leave 
 Switzerland, and I wish you would tell me the story." 
 
 The old woman seemed inclined to comply, but Yakob spoke up. 
 " There is no need of distressing her with that old scandal," he said to 
 his mother. " Your grandfather, my uncle, was an honest man," he 
 added, speaking to Margaret. " It matters not what others say to the 
 contrary. Ask no more, for you will get only lies and sorrow for your 
 pains." 
 
 " I am glad that you can assure me that there is no stain on my 
 grandfather's honor," Margaret replied. " So long as we know that he 
 did only what was right it is no matter what others may say of him." 
 
 No one replied, and Margaret left the room. As she did so, 
 Annette remarked significantly, "What did I tell you! She is proud, 
 proud to the core. It is well you did not tell her the truth. She 
 would have dropped us as if we were offal if you had done so." 
 
 Margaret was of course only the more keenly anxious to hear the 
 entire story, but she restrained her curiosity for the time, sure that it 
 would all come out in the end. For many days she puzzled over the 
 mystery which connected the emigration of her supposed Grandfather 
 Lochwalder with the Matterhorn, without coming to any satisfactory 
 result. But one afternoon she thought that she had discovered the solu- 
 tion in a story of Katchen's. Much that was weird and supernatural 
 was connected with the mountain by popular tradition, and Katchen told 
 her many fairy tales of gnomes and elves that inhabited its caves. The 
 child informed her gravely that the top of the mountain was only a 
 step lower than heaven, and that, before it had been climbed by mor- 
 tal foot, the spirits of all good people who had died in Zermatt and the 
 regions round had preferred to make their residence here in sight of 
 their old homes rather than go quite away from their dear ones, and 
 that the top of the mountain had been fitted up as a Paradise for them. 
 " The streams were bridged with long loaves of bread, the paths paved 
 with cheeses, the cracks in the rocks plastered with butter, and people 
 
152 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 amused themselves with playing nine-pins with balls made of cheese 
 and pins of butter." So said the child, and she firmly believed, not 
 only that holy men and women attained this Paradise, but also that 
 the gentlest and most faithful animals were, at their death, transported 
 thither. " Brown Velvet would have gone there," she was sure, if the 
 sanctuary had remained inviolate. Old chamois hunters had said that 
 sometimes they had seen herds of wonderfully beautiful chamois sport- 
 ing on the sides of the mountain, and when they had shot at them the 
 leaden bullets rebounded from their sides as though they were bon- 
 bons, and the chamois spread out delicate wings, spotted like those of 
 butterflies, and floated away to the summit. 
 
 Herds of spirit cows, too, whose bells played celestial tunes, had 
 been sometimes seen by adventurous herdsmen, who had mounted 
 nearly to the top. One of these had been caught, her father had told 
 her, by some relative of theirs, and had been brought to the Aim. 
 It had escaped after a time, and undoubtedly made its way back to 
 the mountain, but had left behind it a calf, which had been reared, 
 and had become a very beautiful heifer, taking the prize at all of the 
 fairs. This animal had in its turn disappeared on one moonlight 
 night, when the trap-door had been left open in the kitchen floon 
 It was Yakob's belief that the creature had unfolded wings, like those 
 of the spirit chamois, and had flown straight up through the kitchen 
 chimney to the magic mountain. Brown Velvet was a descendant 
 of this wonderful creature, and it was Katchen's fear that the beautiful 
 animal might sometime develop her butterfly wings and soar away, 
 and she frequently stroked Brown Velvet's sides to see if the wings 
 were budding. 
 
 Margaret reminded the child of her grandmother's saying, that a 
 huntsman's stories are not to be believed, and then wondered if this 
 were not the crime on the Matterhorn committed by her grandfather, 
 for which he had fled the country. It seemed absurd that so childish 
 a fable should be believed by grown people, and yet they were all 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 15.3 
 
 singularly childlike, and she determined to ask Mother Lochwalder 
 about it that evening. An event occurred that day which, while it 
 was connected with this fairy tale, was so startling and terrible, that 
 all curiosity in regard to her dead grandfather was blo.tted out by her 
 anxiety for her living one. 
 
 The story of Mr. Whymper's ascent had the same effect on the 
 Judge as its first recital had had upon the fraternity of Alpine climbers 
 — he was all the more eager to attempt the Matterhorn: Yakob 
 manifested fortunately a great reluctance to undertake it. He had 
 made the ascent, and he knew the difficulties were too great for the 
 Judge ; moreover, he had a superstitious fear of the Matterhorn's 
 revenge — some fatality to come to himself from the undertaking. 
 He consequently continued to tempt the Judge to make many another 
 excursion, to shoot chamois in the Einfisch Valley, to look for crystals 
 along the edge of the glacier, and to trudge over the Theodule Pass 
 into Italy. This last was a favorite scheme of Yakob's, and the Judge 
 had given it his approval. " I will go around to Mont Blanc that 
 way, Lochwalder," he had said, " but that will be after I have exhausted 
 Zermatt and conquered the Matterhorn." 
 
 Margaret sighed. "If Mr. Walker were only here!" she said to 
 herself. 
 
 Yakob had exhausted all the attractions of the many expeditions 
 to be made with Zermatt as a centre, and as a last resort, to furnish 
 an excuse for not attempting the grand ascension, he feigned a 
 sprained ankle. The Judge accepted the situation. It was manifestly 
 impossible for Yakob to guide him up the Matterhorn until he should 
 recover. Meantime, with commendable patience, he contented him- 
 self with tending the cows with Annette, Nikolas, and the great dog. 
 The summer had advanced, and they had cropped all the pasturage 
 in the vicinity of the Aim. It was necessary to drive them every 
 morning far up the mountain, to a nook 'from which the snow had 
 but lately melted, and the grass had a spring-like juiciness. They 
 
154 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 would set out after the morning milking, carrying their luncheon 
 with them, and would not return until evening. One morning, after 
 they were well on their way, a spirit of perverseness seemed to enter 
 into Brown Velvet, and she deviated from the regular route, plunging 
 down a path which led to the Matterhorn glacier. It was all that 
 Annette could do, by placing herself directly in the way, and striking 
 lusty blows, to keep the other cows from following their leader. She 
 was effectually aided by the dog, and succeeded at last in getting the 
 herd started upon the right path. 
 
 " Take them on to the pasture," said the Judge, "and Nikolas and 
 I will go after Brown Velvet. We will soon find her and rejoin you." 
 
 Nikolas had greatly improved under Margaret's tuition. He 
 was not really wanting, but simply very backward in expressing the 
 intelligence which he really possessed, and his deformed figure so 
 greatly shocked strangers that he gloated in the terror and disgust 
 which he excited, and, up to Margaret's coming, had made no 
 attempt to contradict the general impression that he was a hopeless 
 cretin, with only a capacity for malice. Margaret was the first out- 
 side his immediate family who had overcome her first repugnance, and 
 had treated him kindly. She believed in his capacity and encouraged 
 him to show it. The Judge, too, took a marked interest in him, and 
 he began to pick up English words with a rapidity really remarkable. 
 As they hurried down the mountain together, following Brown Velvet, 
 Nikolas capered on in advance with great glee. He had heard 
 Katchen's legend of the fairy cows, and had understood more of it 
 than any one suspected ; for when they reached the glacier and found 
 that Brown Velvet had disappeared from view, he spread out his arms 
 to mimic the action of flying and pointed to the Matterhorn. 
 
 The Judge understood him. " You think Brown Velvet has gone 
 to the enchanted pastures on the top of the mountain ? " 
 
 Nikolas nodded energetically, and ran on all the more eagerly, 
 beckoning and calling, " Come, come ! Claus know short way." 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 
 
 155 
 
 " Do you really know the way to the top of the Matterhorn 1 ' 
 
 Nikolas nodded again, very knowingly. " Claus been there," he said. 
 
 It was possible, the Judge thought, for the dwarf was stronger 
 than most men, and could run and leap and skip over the most dan- 
 gerous cliffs, and face without dizziness the deepest precipices. He 
 had more than once failed to come back at nightfall from his long 
 rambles, and could not or would not give an account of where he had 
 been. The Judge suspected that Yakob had no intention of guiding 
 him up the Matterhorn, and here was a most tempting opportunity. 
 The way was plain enough ; it seemed impossible to miss it ; it was 
 still early in the morning They were provided with luncheon, 
 with alpenstocks, matches, a pocket telescope, and compass. What 
 a fine idea it would be to escape this rather vexatious surveillance and 
 surprise them all by making the ascent ! He had no faith in the 
 pretty fancy of the fairy cows, but he was willing to humor Nikolas 's 
 belief in it in order to secure his companionship. He accordingly 
 took out his telescope and pretended to be anxiously scanning the 
 sides of the Matterhorn in search of Brown Velvet. At the edge of 
 the glacier they met a peasant boy, and the Judge, with consideration for 
 Margaret's anxiety, wrote her a note telling her of his determination, 
 and that she must not be alarmed if he did not return on the next 
 day. " If you can send some one with a good supper to meet us at 
 the half-way cabin on our return to-morrow evening," he concluded, 
 " it would be a noble idea. I have just bought a bottle of milk and 
 a hare of this peasant, which will provision the expedition until then." 
 
 The Judge hurried on with the feeling of wicked elation experi- 
 enced by a naughty school-boy who is playing truant, mingled with a 
 haunting fear that he might be overtaken and dragged back. On 
 receiving the note, the peasant had set out immediately for the Aim ; 
 but the Judge recalled him, as this last apprehension occurred to him, 
 and managed to make the boy understand that there was no hurry, 
 and the note need not be delivered until toward evening. 
 
156 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 They proceeded across the glacier with so little difficulty that the 
 Judge's confidence in his young guide increased, and he felt sure 
 that he must have been over the ground before. But how wide the 
 glacier was ! They had been walking for a long time, and the great 
 icy river was only half crossed. The Judge began to be very hungry, 
 and Nikolas took a hard crust of black bread from his pocket, and 
 o-nawed it ravenously. A little farther on, they came to a broken 
 
 branch of a pine-tree 
 which had been carried 
 by the moving ice from 
 far up the mountain. It 
 was too good an oppor- 
 tunity to be lost ; and 
 the Judge cut up the 
 branch with his great 
 jack - knife, and soon 
 kindled a little fire. 
 "This is something 
 like, at last," he said 
 to Nikolas, as he de- 
 lightedly warmed his 
 hands over the blaze. 
 " Now, if we only had 
 some coffee ! However, we can heat the milk, and we can roast 
 the hare." They enjoyed their picnic keenly, eating only a part 
 of the hare, and wrapping up the remainder for their breakfast. 
 After the meal they proceeded on their way, crossing the remainder 
 of the glacier in a short time, and striking up a long couloir or gully 
 between the slopes on the other side. It was shaded by high cliffs, 
 and paved with smooth, hard snow, easy to walk upon. The Judge 
 could not see the cabin ; but he doubted not that this was the regular 
 way, and that a sudden turn would bring them to it. He trudged on 
 
 THE REAL THING AT LAST. 
 
 
LIFE AT THE ALM. 157 
 
 gleefully, and, ignorant of the danger which he incurred, began to 
 sin^ " Marching throuo-h Georgia." The cliffs echoed the strains 
 resoundingly, until it almost seemed as if a small portion of Sherman's 
 army was tramping up the white road. Suddenly there was a report 
 like that of a pistol ; then the Judge felt the sheet of snow on which 
 he stood sliding under him, slowly at first, but with increasing rapidity. 
 Nikolas shrieked aloud, " An avalanche ! " 
 
 Swifter and swifter, like the rush of a toboggan, the cake of snow 
 on which they stood sped onward. Paralyzed with terror, they 
 watched the front edge of this cake crumbling and breaking into 
 fine spray as they drove onward. Would the cake last until they 
 reached the glacier at the foot of the couloir ? the Judge wondered, 
 when suddenly a new danger loomed ahead. Right before them, 
 the couloir was divided by a crag : one branch — the one up which 
 they had come — leading down to the glacier ; the other, to the right 
 of the rock, descended steeply for a little distance, and then ended 
 at the brink of a precipice, a wide crevasse between the glacier and 
 the side of the mountain. Which way would the snow toboggan 
 take ? There was no means of guiding it, — and the moment of 
 suspense which ensued was terrible. To the Judge's horror, the cake 
 of snow struck the crag fairly in the centre, and was broken into a 
 hundred pieces. Buried under the loose snow and by the following 
 mass, he was still rolled on, in which direction he could not tell. 
 Then there was a sense of suffocation, a fall, and he knew no more. 
 
158 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LOST ! 
 
 Here let us leave him — for his shroud the snow; 
 
 For funeral lamps he has the planets seven ; 
 For a great sign the icy stair shall go 
 
 Between the heights to heaven. 
 
 One moment stood he as the angels stand, 
 
 High in the stainless eminence of air; 
 
 The next he was not, to his fatherland 
 
 Translated unaware. 
 
 Myers. 
 
 THE Judge was only too successful in his escapade. Annette 
 remained all day with the cattle at the upper pasture. She was 
 not alarmed that the Judge and Nikolas did not rejoin her ; for 
 she presumed that they had been wearied by their chase after Brown 
 Velvet and had decided to remain with her at the Aim. The peasant 
 did not need the Judge's parting admonition to take his own time ; for 
 he was on his way to a distant chalet and had decided that he could 
 most conveniently deliver the note to Margaret on his return that 
 evening. 
 
 In happy unconsciousness of her grandfather's danger, Margaret 
 passed a delightful day. She was relieved from the cheese-making by 
 Yakob, who ceased limping as soon as the Judge was out of sight, and, 
 taking a bit of embroidery and some of her grandfather's books, she 
 wandered with Katchen to her favorite nook, the shelf of rock which 
 commanded the grand view of the Matterhorn, the spot where she had 
 paused on her way to the Aim two months before, and had bidden 
 farewell to the old life of frivolity and accepted the unknown new life. 
 
LOST. 159 
 
 She smiled at the trepidation and stern resolve with which she had 
 approached the change. It all seemed so simple and sweet to her 
 now. These poor people had received her so kindly and had taken 
 her to their hearts so cordially that she loved them all. She could see, 
 too, that she was doing them all good. Even Annette, though she 
 was still inexplicable in her varying moods, was sometimes wonderfully 
 devoted, rising early and doing all that she could for Margaret before 
 it was time to drive the cows to pasture. Just how it was all to end 
 she was not sure. Her parents had written inviting the Lochwalders 
 to remove to America, but the old mother and Yakob were not willing 
 to emigrate. They were contented as they were and too old, they 
 said, to learn new ways. Yakob had given her the children, and Mar- 
 garet pleased herself with thinking how pretty Katchen would change 
 and improve with American influences and education. Of Nikolas 's 
 musical ability she had high hopes. He was so fond of her, too, 
 and would rub his shaggy head against her dress in such an affection- 
 ate, doggish way, evidently striving to express by actions the love 
 which he could not ££11 in words. Annette, under her unloving exte- 
 rior, was passionately attached to her unfortunate cousin. At first his 
 attachment to Margaret filled her with angry jealousy; but as she 
 could not help seeing how patiently Margaret strove to release his 
 poor imprisoned mind, she experienced a vague remorse for her own 
 unworthy deception. Her revenge was not bringing her the satisfac- 
 tion which she anticipated, but her pride and obstinacy kept her from 
 confessing her fraud. 
 
 As Margaret sat that morning on the brink of the precipice, she 
 thought of Wordsworth's lines, — 
 
 Beneath these mountains many a soft vale lies, 
 And lofty springs give birth to lowly streams. 
 
 Life, even here, was not so stern and savage as it had seemed at first. 
 She had wished to know the real life of the poor. She had shared 
 
1 60 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 their experiences, and had found humble pleasures mingled with the 
 toil ; for love sweetens all things. She was sure now that true friend- 
 ship was better than rank or wealth. And she was thankful that so 
 many friendships had come into her life. There was one friend whom 
 she counted true, but from whom she had not heard for several months. 
 Where among these mountain paths and glaciers was Livingston 
 Walker ? She had thought of him that morning when the music-box 
 played the air of Cecilia's song, — 
 
 The winter may perish, the spring pass away, 
 The summer may fade, and the year decay, 
 Thou wilt be mine, thou wilt return to me : 
 I've promised to wait, and I'll truly wait for thee. 
 
 God help thee if still the sun shines on thee, 
 
 God bless thee if before his glory thou be ; 
 
 I'll wait for thee, and I'll not wait in vain; 
 
 For if thou wait'st above, ah ! then we'll meet again. 
 
 It was a lame translation, and she had scoffed at the sentiment ; 
 but there was something in it which touched her now, and tears, for 
 which she could have given no reason, sprang to her eyes. She 
 brushed them away quickly ; for some one below the cliff was singing 
 that very song. Some one was coming up the mountain-path. An 
 elastic, eager footstep measured the rocky way with long strides, and 
 sent the pebbles rolling down the cliff. She knew who it was before 
 she looked up. Livingston Walker had come at last. It lacked only 
 this to make the day a perfect one, and she greeted him with more of 
 pleasure than surprise. " This is even finer than the Wengern Alp, 
 is it not?" she said; and the young man acknowledged that it was. 
 He had come from the Grimsel on foot by way of Visp and the St. 
 Nicholas Valley ; and he had much to tell her of his adventures since 
 he had last seen her on the glacier of the Aar and on the Great 
 Aletsch Glacier, as well as of a trip through the Austrian Tyrol. 
 
LOST. l6l 
 
 " It seems very Natural to see you again," said Margaret ; " but how 
 did you know that we were here ? " 
 
 " I received a letter from your grandfather a week since, telling me 
 of your wanderings, and inviting me to come and ascend the Mat- 
 terhorn with him." 
 
 " You don't mean to encourage him in that insane idea ? " 
 
 " On the contrary, I thought that I might be of use about this time 
 in suggesting something a little more feasible, — Mont Blanc, for 
 instance. I would like to make that ascent myself before I return to 
 America. From his letter I judged that your grandfather was getting 
 restless. He says, ' They watch me as if I were a child, and throw all 
 manner of obstacles in the way of my attemping the Matterhorn ; but 
 some fine day I shall give them the slip.' " 
 
 " You are just in time," Margaret replied. " I was wishing only 
 yesterday that you were here. I think grandfather ought to go away 
 from this vicinity for a time. The Matterhorn exercises such a fasci- 
 nation over him. I do not wonder, it is so defiantly beautiful. Look, 
 Mr. Walker ! Did you ever see anything more magnificent ? " 
 
 " It does indeed remind me of our day on the Wengern Alp," 
 Walker replied. " Did you notice that avalanche ? We .are too far 
 away to hear the reverberations, but the puff of snow-spray was plainly 
 discernible." 
 
 " I was just reading about an avalanche," Margaret replied. " Per- 
 haps you would like to continue the reading while I embroider." 
 
 Mr. Walker examined the book. " It is the account of the death 
 of the guide Bennen, one of the best descriptions of an avalanche 
 ever written. I will read it with pleasure : — 
 
 * "' On Feb. 28, 1864, we (M. Gossett and M. Boissonnet) left Sion 
 with Bennen to mount the Haut de Cry. We started at 2.15 a.m., 
 in a light carriage, that brought us to the village of Ardon, distant six 
 miles. We there met three men that were to accompany us as local 
 guides. . . . We had to go up a steep snow-field about eight hundred 
 
1 62 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 feet high. It was about one hundred and fifty feet broad at the top, 
 and four hundred or five hundred at the bottom. Bennen did not 
 seem to like the look of the snow. He asked the guides whether 
 avalanches ever came down this couloir, to which they answered that 
 our position was perfectly safe. Having arrived at one hundred and 
 fifty feet from the top we began crossing. At about three-quarters 
 of the breadth of the couloir the two leading men sank considerably 
 above their waists. The snow was too deep to think of getting out 
 of the hole they had made, so they advanced, dividing the snow with 
 their bodies. This furrow was about twelve feet long, and, as the 
 snow was good on the other side, we had all come to the false con- 
 elusion that the snow was accidentally softer there than elsewhere. 
 Boissonnet advanced, and we heard a deep, cutting sound. The snow- 
 field split in two about fourteen or fifteen feet above us. The cleft 
 was at first quite narrow, not more than an inch broad. An awful 
 silence ensued. It lasted but a few seconds, and then it was broken 
 by Bennen's voice, " Wir sind alle verloren." His words were slow 
 and solemn ; they were his last. I drove my alpenstock into the snow, 
 and brought the weight of my body to bear on it ; it went in to within 
 three inches of the top. I then waited. It was an awful moment of 
 suspense. I turned my head towards Bennen to see whether he had 
 done the same thing. To my astonishment I saw him turn round, 
 face the valley, and stretch out both arms. The ground on which 
 we stood began to move slowly, and I felt the uselessness of my 
 alpenstock. I soon sank up to my shoulders. The speed of the 
 avalanche increased rapidly, and before long I was . covered up with 
 snow, and in utter darkness. I was suffocating, when with a jerk I 
 suddenly came to the surface again. The rope had caught. I was 
 on a wave of the avalanche, and saw it before me. It was the most 
 awful sight I ever witnessed. The head of the avalanche was pre- 
 ceded by a thick cloud of snow-dust, the rest of the avalanche was 
 clear. Around me I heard the horrid hissing of the snow, and far 
 

 WShp-Amm , ill, ^^ws 
 
 pi; • ■ IS li 
 
 i ' " * 'i ' i ,n 
 
 WBSjttM, 
 
 ,,';Jf 
 
 
 ••4~;\V 
 
 *»■; 
 
 i' 
 
 »1 
 
 : 
 
 } > ** If 
 
 Hi) •'', | ''/ 
 
LOST. 165 
 
 before me the thundering of the foremost part of the avalanche. To 
 prevent myself sinking again, I made use of my arms, much in the 
 same way as when swimming in a standing position. At last I noticed 
 that I was moving slower ; then I saw the pieces of snow in front of 
 me stop at some yards distance ; then the snow straight before me 
 stopped, and I heard on a large scale the same creaking sound that 
 is produced when a heavy cart passes over hard, frozen snow in 
 winter. I felt that I also had stopped, and instantly threw up both 
 arms, to protect my head in case I should again be covered up. I had 
 stopped, but the snow behind me was still in motion. Its pressure 
 on my body was so strong that I thought I should be crushed to 
 death. This pressure ceased as suddenly as it had begun. I was 
 then covered up by snow coming from behind me. My first impulse 
 was to try to uncover my head, but this I could not do. The 
 avalanche had frozen by pressure the moment it stopped, and I was 
 frozen in. Whilst trying vainly to move my arms I became aware 
 that the hands as far as the wrist had the faculty of motion. The 
 conclusion was easy — they must be above the snow. I set to work. 
 At last I saw a faint glimmer of light. The crust above my head 
 was getting thinner, but I could not reach it any more with my hands. 
 The idea struck me that I might pierce it with my breath. After 
 several efforts I succeeded, and felt suddenly a rush of air toward 
 my mouth. After a few minutes I heard a man shouting. What a 
 relief it was to know that I was not the sole survivor : three others 
 were alive. I was at length taken out. The snow had to be cut 
 with the axe down to my feet before I could be pulled out. When 
 I was taken out of the snow the cord had to be cut. We tried the 
 end going toward Bennen, but could not move it. It went nearly 
 straight down, and showed us that there was the grave of the bravest 
 guide the Valais ever had. The cold had done its work ; we could 
 stand it no longer, and began the descent. In five hours we reached 
 Ardon.' " 
 
166 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 "How shocking to leave the poor man in that way!" Margaret 
 exclaimed. 
 
 " It was impossible for them to do otherwise," Mr. Walker replied, 
 " and even if they could have exhumed him at once, they would have 
 
 found only his lifeless body." 
 
 " What folly mountaineering is ! " 
 Margaret exclaimed. " No one has a 
 right to risk life unless for the sake 
 of saving life." 
 
 As she spoke, Katchen came tow- 
 ard them. " Grandmother has come 
 back from Zermatt, and dinner is 
 ready. I told her there was company 
 and I have cooked some sausages and 
 cabbage." 
 
 " What a pretty child ! " said Mr. 
 Walker. 
 
 " This is my little cousin Katchen," 
 Margaret replied. " Did not grand- 
 father tell you that we had found 
 my relations ? They are very worthy 
 people, and I am very fond and proud 
 of them." 
 
 To say that Mr. Walker was not 
 surprised to find that Margaret was 
 connected with such lowly peasants, would be untrue. He shook 
 hands, however, with Mother Lochwalder — who congratulated herself 
 that she had on her best clothes — and with Yakob — in his poorest — 
 with a simple friendliness which had nothing in it of condescension, 
 and accepted, with evident pleasure, the invitation to remain and 
 share the Judge's loft, until they should set out upon their expedition 
 to Mont Blanc. Down in his heart of hearts he was very happy. He 
 
 MOTHER LOCHWALDER. 
 
LOST. 167 
 
 loved Margaret, but had feared that this love would bring him only 
 grief, for hitherto he had not dared to hope. It seemed to him that 
 with all her grand qualities she was haughty and unapproachable. 
 He saw her now in another character, stooping so sweetly to these 
 humble people, and he said to himself, " She has come to understand 
 real values ; when she decides it will be from the highest motives." 
 
 Annette returned a little later than usual that afternoon ; for she 
 lacked Brown Velvet's assistance in marshalling the herd. She was 
 surprised at not finding the pet cow in her stall, and Yakob was 
 equally astonished at not hearing her bell as the cattle came down 
 the mountain. " Have not Judge Houghton and Nikolas returned? " 
 Annette asked. 
 
 " Surely not. Have they not been with you all the day ? " 
 
 There was great alarm in the chalet when Annette explained how 
 the Judge and Nikolas had gone in search of Brown Velvet, early in 
 the morning. 
 
 " The fairy cow has led them straight to the Matterhorn," said 
 Mother Lochwalder. 
 
 " It needed no elfin spell to do that," said Margaret ; and their 
 worst fears were realized when a little later the peasant arrived, bear- 
 ing the Judge's cheerful missive. 
 
 " We must organize a search-party at once," said Mr. Walker. 
 
 " We shall have moonlight, and we can overtake them before 
 morning at the cabin," said Yakob, " if we set out at once. You and 
 I will be enough to bring them back safely: let us waste no time in 
 getting men from Zermatt ; we know well enough where they have 
 gone." 
 
 He took down a coil of rope and a small pickaxe, while Mother 
 Lochwalder filled a flask with Kirchenwasser and trimmed a lantern. 
 " Hang this outside the cabin if you find them," she said. " We will 
 take the spyglass and watch from the cliff." 
 
 Mr. Walker ran back after he had started. Margaret hurried to 
 
1 68 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 meet him, thinking that he had forgotten something. He took her 
 hand, and said earnestly, " When I bring your grandfather back safe, 
 Miss Margaret, I shall have a request to make of you. Can you give 
 me the hope that you will grant it ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes. Of course — anything," Margaret replied, not com- 
 prehending him. " But hurry. And Nikolas. Remember, you must 
 bring Nikolas too." The girl's heart sank as she saw them go ; and 
 she called back the old peasant who was setting out for Zermatt, and 
 sent a note by him to one of the best guides in the town, asking him 
 to get together a party of the most intrepid mountaineers to follow 
 Mr. Walker and Yakob. Then there was nothing to do but to wait — 
 the hardest task of all. The sun was setting, when, from their post 
 of observation, the women saw the two men begin to cross the glacier. 
 They had found the Judge's trail, and followed it with happy confi- 
 dence. The moon had risen before the setting of the sun, and with 
 the aid of the glass, the three women saw their friends cross the great 
 white highway, — only two little black specks moving so painfully and 
 slowly, as it seemed to the eager watchers, though they were really 
 making very good time. 
 
 It will be remembered that the cake of snow, which carried the 
 Judge and Nikolas down the couloir, split in two against a pinnacle 
 of rock, and that one half swept downward to the glacier, while 
 the other carried the unfortunate mountaineers down a branch 
 couloir into a crevasse at some distance from the point at which 
 they began their ascent. Before Mr. Walker and Yakob had finished 
 crossing the glacier, they saw plainly enough that a recent avalanche 
 had descended the very couloir to which the track they were following 
 led. Fresh snow obliterated the footprints, and the Judge's alpen- 
 stock, which had been whirled from his hand by striking against the 
 pinnacle, and had followed the course of this part of the snow-slide, 
 lay at a little distance. The conclusion was most natural that the 
 Judge himself and his little guide were buried under that mass of 
 
LOST. 
 
 169 
 
 snow. Yakob began to dig wildly near the spot where he had found 
 the alpenstock. Walker strode up and down, carefully examining the 
 snow for other indications, and hallooing at intervals. 
 
 Marga- 
 ret saw the 
 pause at 
 the foot of 
 
 the couloir, and the wavering mo- 
 tion of the lantern as Mr. Walker 
 carried it from one side of the 
 avalanche to the other, and imme- 
 diately surmised that they had 
 come upon some casualty. At 
 the same time, Annette uttered 
 an exclamation, and pointed to a 
 line of men connected by a rope like so many beads on a rosary, 
 crossing the glacier lower down. " It is the rescuing party from 
 Zermatt," she said; "but they do not see father and Mr. Walker, 
 
 RESCUING PARTY ON THE MATTERHORN. 
 
170 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND, 
 
 and are going to begin the ascent of the mountain at another point, 
 
 and will be of no help." 
 " If we could only at- 
 tract their attention by- 
 signals of some sort," 
 Margaret suggested, 
 "and make them un- 
 derstand that they are 
 needed in the other di- 
 rection." 
 
 They lighted torches 
 of pine fagots, and 
 waved them frantically ; 
 but with no effect. The 
 human rosary wound 
 around the base of the 
 mountain, and was lost 
 to view. Mother Loch- 
 walder groaned, and 
 wrung her hands. 
 
 " Perhaps grand- 
 father and Nikolas have 
 really succeeded in 
 reaching the cabin," 
 Margaret suggested; 
 " and it is all for the 
 best that the men have 
 gone that way." 
 
 " No, no ! " replied 
 
 Mother Lochwalder. " Yakob would never stop where he is now if 
 
 some dreadful accident had not happened." 
 
 " It is all my fault," Margaret said penitently. " If I had only 
 
 ON THE MATTERHORN. 
 
LOST. 
 
 171 
 
 allowed Cousin Yakob to go with grandfather, he would have brought 
 him back safely." 
 
 " Praise be to the Virgin, that he did not go with him," Mother 
 Lochwalder replied. " If your grandfather had been lost under Ya- 
 kob's guidance, our family would have been cursed indeed. It is just 
 what I have been dreading ever since you came, — the punishment of 
 the crime of one of your ancestors visited upon another. I knew the 
 Matterhorn would have justice done, and I have sometimes feared that 
 Yakob might have to pay the debt Better so, than that two innocent 
 ones should perish. But I am thankful that it cannot be said that 
 he was the means of their destruction,," 
 
 " What do you mean, aunt ? " Margaret asked, entirely unable to 
 comprehend her meaning. 
 
 " She is wild," Annette replied. " The anxiety of this night has 
 crazed her. Pay no attention to what she says, she has lost her wits." 
 
 " You speak lies, granddaughter," replied the old woman shortly. 
 " My lady grand-niece has asked to know the reason why my brother 
 left his native land, and lived under an assumed name in a distant 
 country. I will not conceal it from her any longer. Know, my child, 
 that your Grandfather Lochwalder was one of the best guides in the 
 country ; but one woful day he guided a wealthy man up the Matter- 
 horn." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " No ; it was not well. The man was not experienced in moun- 
 taineering. He slipped, and was dashed in pieces on the rocks a 
 thousand feet below." 
 
 " Horrttfle ! " Margaret replied. " Poor grandfather how he must 
 have suffered ! " 
 
 " Yes ; poor man, poor man ! Better have lain in the place of the 
 traveller,- dead, in the deep ravine, for the finger of scorn was pointed 
 at him by every hand in the valley; and his old friends turned the 
 cold shoulder, and would not recognize him." 
 
172 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN" SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Why, I think they ought to have sympathized with him in his 
 great misfortune." 
 
 " They said that they were tied together ; and if the rope had held, 
 the stranger would have been safe ; for my brother was strong and able 
 to brace himself like an ox, and the stranger slender and of light 
 weight." 
 
 " But if the rope broke, it surely was not grandfather's fault." 
 
 " The rope did not break. They who found the body brought it to 
 the Commune. The rope was cut clean in two by the sharp blade 
 of a hunting-knife. They said that my brother had led the man to a 
 dangerous spot; and when he was pulling on the rope to help him- 
 self up the slippery way, the scoundrel with one gash had cut the 
 cord, and let him fall to his death, meaning to find and rob the body 
 afterward." 
 
 " But it was a lie, aunt ; they were all liars. Cousin Yakob said my 
 grandfather was an honest man. It is impossible that my grandfather 
 could have committed such a crime. He may have been poor, but he 
 could not have been wicked." 
 
 Annette laughed a cruel, bitter laugh. " Why not your grand- 
 father, as well as another? Do you think that you are not also 
 human ? Now you know something of the troubles of the poor. It 
 is not hunger of body or mind which is hardest to bear, but shame for 
 evil deeds of our own and of those we love — deeds to which you 
 rich are never tempted. My great-uncle did not deliberately commit 
 murder for the sake of gold. The man had fallen over the side of the 
 precipice. The rock on which the guide stood was slippery ; with one 
 hand he had grasped a bush, and he felt to his horror that it was 
 giving way. It was not possible for him to brace himself, for his feet 
 could gain no hold on the icy rock. It was a question whether one 
 man or two men should perish. He had but an instant to decide ; 
 and — he confessed it to his sister — he did cut the rope." 
 
 Margaret uttered a low cry. " The coward ! he should have died 
 first!" ^ 
 
LOST. 173 
 
 " It is easy to say that," Mother Lochwalder replied. " The poor 
 boy realized it himself afterward. But what can we do when our 
 friends choose wrongly ? Only forgive them, and love them, and try 
 to help them bear their shame with them as best you can. When I 
 saw my brother grovelling on the floor before me and asking me to 
 kill him, I, said, ' Brother, we must not commit two crimes. Go to a 
 new country and live a new life, and God will know what is best for 
 you here and hereafter.' He wound the rope which he had cut about 
 his body underpins shirt. ' I shall wear it till my death,' he said, 'to 
 keep me from forgetting my crime.' I packed a sack with his clothes, 
 and he set out by way of the Theodule Pass ; but the townspeople 
 were watching all the roads, and they were posted there, too, and they 
 dragged him back to jail. He knew that he would be tried for murder 
 and hung, and he could not bear it. The window of his cell overlooked 
 a ravine ; and one dark night he removed a bar and fastened one end 
 of the rope to the grating. Then he squeezed through the upper part 
 of the window and descended the rope hand over hand. When he had 
 reached the end he was still many feet above the ground. He was 
 afraid to let go, and might have swung there until he was caught, — 
 for you say right, he was a coward, — but the rope which had held the 
 poor traveller on the Matterhorn broke under my brother's weight, and 
 he fell to the ground, bruised, but not badly injured. The Theodule 
 Pass was not guarded that night ; for they thought him safe in prison. 
 I never saw him again, or heard from him or his until Annette, who 
 went away to America long after, wrote me that she had found you." 
 
 The story was told, and Margaret wound her arms around Mother 
 Lochwalder. " You were right, dear aunt," she said. " All we can 
 do is to love the erring, forgive and help them, and bear the conse- 
 quences of their sin. I accept this legacy also, and I will try to help 
 you bear your trouble." 
 
 Annette looked at Margaret in a dazed way. She could not believe 
 her ears. "Such goodness is not human," she thought. " It is only 
 
I 74 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 the stress of this intense excitement which has brought out such a 
 theatrical declaration. To-morrow, when her grandfather is found, she 
 will shake us all off and leave us." 
 
 Mother Lochwalder was wearied with watching and emotion, and 
 Margaret led her gently inside the chalet and persuaded her to lie 
 down. Mother Lochwalder urged Margaret to follow her example. 
 
 " You will make yourself ill, and be of no service when they come 
 back," she argued. " You are as white as a ghost now." 
 
 " I am cramped with sitting still ; I am wild from doing nothing," 
 Margaret replied. " I am going down to the glacier." 
 
 " You cannot see as much there as here." 
 
 But Margaret did not hear her. She could bear the inaction no 
 longer, and had hurried down the mountain-side. Annette followed, 
 telling herself fiercely that Margaret's anxiety was all for her grand- 
 father, and that she cared nothing for the poor lost child. 
 
 The Zermatt glacier is impressive even in daylight. Ruskin has 
 best described it in this inimitable word-picture : " Higher up the ice 
 opens into broad white fields and furrows, hard and dry, scarcely fis- 
 sured at all except just under the Cervin, and forming a silent and 
 solemn causeway, paved, as it seems, with white marble from side to 
 side : broad enough for the march of an army in line of battle, but 
 quiet as a street of tombs in a buried city, and bordered on each hand 
 by ghostly cliffs of that faint granite purple which seems, in its far- 
 away height, as ' unsubstantial as the dark blue that bounds it ; the 
 whole scene so changeless and soundless, so removed, not merely from 
 the presence of men, but even from their thoughts, so destitute of all 
 life of tree or herb, and so immeasurable in its lonely brightness of 
 majestic death, that it looks like a world from which not only the 
 human, but the spiritual, presences had perished, and the last of its 
 archangels, building the great mountains for their monuments, had 
 laid themselves down in the sunlight to an eternal rest, each in his 
 white shroud." 
 
LOST. 175 
 
 As Margaret stood upon the edge of the glacier in the ghostly 
 moonlight, she was almost overpowered by its awful loneliness and 
 sublimity. She walked a little way forward, and then a great trem- 
 bling seized her and she stood still. She had lost one grandfather 
 this night. Her ideal, chivalric grandfather, who had left Europe an 
 exile for the sake of his conviction, was no more. In his place she 
 must accept the memory of a fugitive criminal. And her own loved 
 Grandfather Houghton, with the boyish heart, — where was he? Sud- 
 denly, far off across the snow-field, she saw Mr. Walker and Yakob, 
 and oh, joy ! between them they supported the dear old man, rescued 
 from a living grave. After the first wild thrill of joy she looked again 
 for Nikolas. He was so tiny she might well have missed him. 
 Surely he was following behind the rest. Annette overtook her, 
 and she begged her anxiously to look. " You can see better than I, 
 Annette. Where is Nikolas ? " 
 
 " He is not with them. He must be lost." 
 
 The three came on, with white, sad faces. 
 
 " Nikolas ! " cried Margaret, " where is Nikolas ? " The tears were 
 streaming down the Judge's face ; he could not reply, and Yakob 
 answered solemnly, " It is the revenge of the Matterhorn. A stranger 
 was killed that one of our family might live, and now Nikolas pays the 
 debt. God's will be done." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! " Margaret exclaimed. " It is not the will of our 
 Father in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish ! You 
 found my grandfather. Why did you not dig further and find Cousin 
 Nikolas ? " 
 
 " Our strength is exhausted," Mr. Walker replied. " We could do 
 no more." 
 
 " The other party has gone up the mountain ; I will go after 
 them ! " Margaret exclaimed. 
 
 " You are crazy ! " Annette exclaimed. " Do you not see that your 
 grandfather is nearly fainting, and the others are worn out ? Between 
 
I 76 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 us, we will get him to the chalet. What matters it if a poor deformed 
 dwarf is lost ? " 
 
 " My dear cousin, you can help grandfather. I will go to Zermatt 
 and get together more men, and show them where to go." 
 
 Mr. Walker called to her, " Come back ; it is of no use ! " but they 
 could not stop her, she was running down the path that skirted the 
 glacier. The moon had set and the dawn was breaking gray and 
 chill, and she looked like a phantom of the mists. " God bless her," 
 said Yakob reverently, " how she loves the boy ! " 
 
 And Annette, winding her strong arm about the Judge, as she 
 supported him up the path toward the chalet, felt all the bitter waters 
 of hatred toward Margaret ebb from her heart, and a great surging 
 wave of love roll in. " Is there any hope ? " she asked of Mr. Walker 
 and Yakob, who were tottering after her. 
 
 " We found the Judge in a shallow crevasse, only partially buried," 
 replied the younger man, " and we went over the entire avalanche, 
 thrusting our alpenstocks deep into the snow at near intervals. Noth- 
 ing living could exist below that depth." 
 
 " No," added Yakob, with a sob. " My boy is dead, — but God 
 bless her all the same ! " 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. 
 
 177 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. BAVARIA. 
 
 MRS. NEWTON, Alice, and Cecilia, after the departure of the 
 others for the south, turned their steps toward the northeast. 
 By making a slight detour from the direct route to Zurich, 
 they could visit the celebrated abbey church of Einsiedeln ; and though 
 it was not yet time for the great annual pilgrimage, when a hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred thousand pilgrims from all parts of Europe 
 visit the spot, they determined to take it on their way. 
 
 The abbey is built on the summit of Mt. Etzel, in a wild, desolate 
 region near Lake Zurich. 
 
 Tradition states that Meinrad, a noble of the family of Hohenzollern, 
 about one thousand years ago, felt called upon to withdraw from the 
 world, and devote himself to the care of an image of the Virgin given 
 him by Saint Hildegarde, Abbess of Zurich. In 803 he was mur- 
 dered, but two pet ravens pursued the murderers to Zurich and caused 
 their arrest. They were executed on a spot where now stands the 
 Raven Inn. 
 
 The three friends stopped at this inn, and after very simple refresh- 
 ment, mounted to the great monastery which now occupies the site 
 of Saint Meinrad's cell. 
 
 Erberard, another count of the same family, founded this convent 
 here in 948, the emperor granting lands. The Bishop of Constance 
 was to consecrate the church, but was awakened by angelic minstrelsy 
 and the confirmation that the ceremony had already been performed 
 by the Saviour. 
 
I yS THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Pope Leo VIII. pronounced it a true miracle, and granted indul- 
 gence to all pilgrims who should visit the abbey. The spring from 
 which the holy hermit drank has been so conducted into a system of 
 water-works, and gushes from fourteen different pipes in front of the 
 church. The pilgrims feel it necessary to drink from each of these 
 pipes, a hydropathic treatment which may be beneficial for certain 
 disorders. Within the church they were shown the Virgin of Saint 
 Meinrad, an ugly doll of black wood, resembling the devotional images 
 so common in Spain. It was dressed gorgeously in gold brocade and 
 jewels, and the walls of the church were hung with votive offerings 
 from penitents and pilgrims. There were crutches left by the lame 
 who fancied that they had been healed, wax figures of deformities, for 
 which deliverance had been sought, and rich gifts of gold and silver 
 from those who asked plenary indulgence, not only for past, but for 
 contemplated crimes. The pope's remission of sins is inscribed in 
 letters of gold over the door of the church, " Hie est plena remissio 
 pecatorum a poena et a culpa," and many a guilty soul still seeks this 
 shrine to roll away its weight of sin. 
 
 The reformer, Zwingli, began his preaching here, and boldly 
 declared at this centre of idolatry, " Christ alone saves, and he saves 
 everywhere. Do not imagine that God is in this temple more than in 
 any part of creation. Whatever be the country in which you dwell, 
 God is around you and hears you." 
 
 As the girls were shown the beautiful objects of the goldsmith's 
 art, left as votive offerings, Cecilia uttered an exclamation of surprise. 
 " Only look at this, Alice," and she pointed to a silver vinaigrette, " it 
 is undoubtedly the one which the countess lost; see, it bears the 
 engraved crest, a mailed hand holding a firebrand." 
 
 Mrs. Newton asked the sacristan who had given the object; but 
 the man could only tell that it had been donated during the previous 
 week, by an unknown woman who had confessed to the priest in 
 charge. 
 
m^ '—-'''' 
 
 : ■ , , ''., ..', 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. l8l 
 
 " It was undoubtedly Annette," said Cecilia. " But I am aston- 
 ished; for Margaret assured me that, during her long stay with her 
 mother, the girl has always been strictly honest. Annette never 
 could do the simplest thing without the greatest secrecy. I have 
 fancied for some time that she had something on her conscience 
 which is troubling her. Doubtless, she has been here at Einsiedeln 
 to seek absolution for this first theft, and is now on her way to her 
 people. But what could have induced her to steal the thing ? " Cecilia 
 questioned, much puzzled. It was impossible to induce the guardians 
 of the church property to give up the vinaigrette on their testimony ; 
 and the travellers continued their journey, without being able to 
 arrive at an explanation of the mystery. 
 
 They had left Switzerland, and with only a brief stop at Stuttgart 
 and Nuremberg, proceeded to Baireuth, where they had planned to 
 spend several weeks in the enjoyment of the Wagner Festival. It 
 was not the regular year for it; but fortunately for them, the Em- 
 peror of Germany had requested a special performance of the 
 operas, and they, with many other tourists, would benefit by the 
 request. 
 
 The friends reached Baireuth, a small town in Northern Bavaria, 
 in the latter part of July. The sleepy old town seems surprised by 
 the sudden notoriety forced upon it by the festivals which are held 
 here in honor of Wagner. Hundreds of visitors from every part of 
 the world are attracted by the musical treat. No adequate accommo- 
 dations are provided for them ; and the townspeople incommode them- 
 selves, and huddle into corners, without furnishing the necessary room 
 for their guests. 
 
 The girls walked from house to house, and at last were obliged 
 to content themselves with very inconvenient quarters. If the rooms 
 were undesirable, they had the merit of cheapness. Frau Selig, the 
 honest hostess, had no idea of taking advantage of the demand for 
 lodgings by charging an extortionate price. American enterprise, in 
 
182 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 such a place, would build palatial hotels, and would make a high 
 percentage on the money invested. 
 
 The concerts had been in progress for two weeks, and would last 
 a month longer. They were held in a theatre built for the purpose, 
 on a hill about a mile from the town. A performance was given 
 three times a week. The opera of " Parsifal," being the favorite, was 
 
 given every week, while the 
 programme for the other days 
 was changed frequently. 
 
 The opera played the first 
 afternoon after the arrival of 
 the three friends was " The 
 Meistersinger." Taking their 
 landlady's pretty daughter, Min- 
 na, with them, _ they drove out 
 through the shady avenue in 
 the early afternoon, enjoying the 
 beautiful view from the summit 
 of the hill. The performance 
 began at four in the afternoon, 
 and continued for one hour, when 
 there was an intermission of an 
 hour, during which the audience 
 strolled in the woods at the back 
 of the theatre, or patronized the cafe, returning for the second act ; 
 after which another hour of intermission occurred, followed by the 
 third and last act, the concert ending at about nine o'clock. 
 
 The girls were struck, on entering the theatre, by one marked 
 peculiarity. There were no lights, and the auditorium was quite dark. 
 This was Wagner's desire, in order that the attention of the audience 
 might not be distracted from the music by familiar faces, or by mag- 
 nificent costumes. No one attends these operas to see or to be seen, 
 but simply and solely for the sake of the music. 
 
 FRAU SELIG. 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. 
 
 183 
 
 For a similar reason the orchestra is sunk below the stage, that the 
 dark figures of the musicians may not silhouette against the foot- 
 lights, and the attention be drawn 
 by the fine bowing of a violinist, 
 or the energetic movements of the 
 conductor's baton. 
 
 They were early, and in spite of 
 the dusk, Minna pointed out the dif- 
 ferent boxes opposite the stage. 
 
 " Those are the Starr sisters," said 
 Minna, indicating two old ladies. 
 " They were friends of Wagner, and 
 have not missed a single performance 
 since the festival was instituted. That 
 is his son Siegfried Wagner, who is 
 
 speaking with them. The central box belongs to Frau Cosima. 
 See ! the gracious lady is taking her seat." 
 
 "Who is Frau Cosima?" asked Mrs. Newton. 
 
 " Who but the widow of the great Wagner, and the daughter of 
 Liszt ? " 
 
 " Then why is she not called Frau Wagner ? " 
 
 " It is her Christian name ; we call her so in loving familiarity, 
 just as if I were to call you by your Christian name, Lady Alice. 
 She is the lady of this region ; she was always Cosima to her hus- 
 band and her father, and she will always be Cosima to us. The 
 other boxes are occupied by royal personages, and by distinguished 
 musical artists. Those seats cannot be had for mere money. Hush, 
 the orchestra are beginning ! " 
 
 All listened with rapt attention, while the most famous singers of 
 Germany presented even the most subordinate parts. 
 
 During the intermission they wandered through the grove, and 
 were surprised to find that the greater part of the audience ignored 
 
1 84 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 the cafe, and seemed in haste to seek the most solitary by-paths. 
 " You thought that Germans cared only for good things to eat, did 
 you not ? " asked Minna. " Ah, no ! we are the most sentimental 
 people in the world. Why is that tall man taking such long strides 
 over the rocks ? It is that he may get away from the crowd and sit 
 
 down by himself and meditate." 
 The girls sympathized with 
 the sentimentalist during the 
 first intermission, but at the 
 second recess, the claims of 
 hunger could not be disre- 
 garded, and they sustained 
 their higher natures by a visit 
 to the cafe and a liberal re-in- 
 forcement of pretzils and coffee. 
 The charm of Baireuth grew 
 upon Cecilia, as she lingered 
 under its influence ; but Alice 
 said one morning : — 
 
 " I am beginning to tire even 
 of our delightful tour ; I long to 
 get to my real work among my 
 dear Bulgarian girls." 
 
 There were tears in her 
 kindly eyes which were not 
 those of self-pity ; for Alice had 
 become interested in Lajos for his own sake. What he had told 
 her of the poor miners had made her feel that he was not altogether 
 selfish. He had said that he wished her to visit his estates, and tell 
 him how he could improve the condition of his tenants ; but she had 
 heard nothing from him since they had left Lucerne. The conclu- 
 sion was natural that he did not care for her, and that his philan- 
 
 A DEVOTEE OF WAGNER. 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. 
 
 I8 5 
 
 thropic impulse was only a momentary one, or that he was entirely 
 
 bound by his aunt's whims. With this feeling, Alice put Lajos 
 
 resolutely from her thoughts, and forced 
 
 herself to be interested in the musical 
 
 festival. 
 
 They had been in Baireuth a little 
 
 over a week before she attended the 
 
 opera of " Parsifal," which is generally 
 
 conceded to be Wagner's masterpiece. 
 
 Alice had been prejudiced against Wag- 
 ner's music, but with Cecilia at her side 
 
 to explain, the noble moral purpose of 
 
 this work opened before her, and she 
 
 understood the grandeur of conception listening to "parsifal," no. i. 
 
 and the elevation of soul which must 
 
 have stood behind such a composition. Not only was the poetry 
 
 itself dignified in form and of high order technically, — and this she 
 
 had not expected, as Wagner's fame as a 
 musical composer overshadows that which 
 he might have won as an author, — 
 but the old myth of the Holy Grail was 
 ennobled in its elaboration in a manner 
 quite worthy of Tennyson. The plot of 
 " Parsifal " reminded the girls of the 
 "Idyls of the King" and the other Ar- 
 thurian legends ; for curiously enough 
 the same traditions of Arthur's court 
 and his knights of the Table Round 
 exist in Germany, and like the English 
 legends, have a Breton origin. The 
 
 grail was a chalice of chrysolite which Christ is supposed to have 
 
 used at his last supper with his disciples. It was the favorite quest 
 
 LISTENING TO " PARSIFAL," NO. 2. 
 
lS6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 of the knights of Arthur's court, but only he whose heart was pure 
 could succeed. 
 
 During: the intermission between the second and third acts Alice 
 and Cecilia followed the general custom in strolling through the grove 
 at the back of the theatre. This is a favorite resort for people from 
 Baireuth, and is frequented by many who do not attend the operas. 
 Seeing so many persons walking about, the girls, who had not hap- 
 pened to hear the trumpet signal which announced the opening of 
 each act, did not realize the flight of time, and found when they 
 returned to the theatre that the performance had begun. They were 
 not allowed to disturb the audience by passing down the aisle to their 
 seats, and the usher could only find a chair for Cecilia, so that Alice 
 found herself standing alone at the back of the darkened auditorium. 
 Presently a gentleman in the next row became aware that a lady was 
 standing, and politely offered her his seat. Alice demurred, but in 
 the midst of her hesitation found herself placed in the seat with gentle 
 firmness. It was Lajos, beaming with a delight which seemed actually 
 to illuminate his features. " This poor Parsifal has found his grail at 
 last," he said with a joyful earnestness which gave the low-spoken 
 words a double and personal meaning. . 
 
 He stood behind her throughout the remainder of the act, bending 
 once to take the opera-glass which she handed him, and keeping a 
 firm, steady hold of her hand until the falling of the curtain. 
 
 Alice knew from that quiet hand-clasp that all her doubts and 
 fears had been groundless ; her knight had been wandering in no 
 palace of Klingsor. 
 
 After the close of the performance he led her to his aunt, who had 
 a better seat nearer the front. Having just arrived, Lajos had beer 
 obliged to content himself with what he could obtain, and the happv 
 chance had occasioned their meeting. " I would have found you in 
 any- case," he said afterward, " if I had found it necessary to searcl 
 from door to door." 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. 
 
 I8 7 
 
 The countess received Alice graciously, and inquired where they 
 were staying. " I shall call on your mother to-morrow," she said, " to 
 make arrangements for our journey down the Danube, which I trust 
 we can make in company." 
 
 " There are delightful rides to be made on horseback in the vicinity 
 of Baireuth," said Lajos. " Have you seen the ruined castle of Stein 
 in the Fichtelgebirge ? Can we not make up a riding-party for 
 to-morrow? Your mother and my aunt can be driven in an open 
 carriage, and we can be their outriders." 
 
 This plan was adopted with acclaim ; but 
 on the following morning Cecilia found her- 
 self suffering from headache, and could not 
 be induced to accompany the party. It was 
 to be an all-day's excursion, and Frau Selig'r, 
 stout hand-maidens lifted a well-filled lunch 
 hamper into the carriage. Alice, in a hand- 
 some green cloth riding-suit, and Lajos, in 
 an Austrian riding-costume, mounted on 
 
 spirited but gentle horses, led the way. They picknicked in the pine 
 woods, and crossing a spur of the Ochsenkopf, returned toward even- 
 ing by another route. It was a charming excursion ; but they made 
 no attempt to climb to the " Bake Oven," the hut erected by the Ger- 
 man Alpine Club on the summit of the Schneeberg ; nor were they 
 greatly interested in the enchanting views of Franconian Switzerland, 
 which opened to them at intervals ; nor in the fantastic legends which 
 Richter found in this delightful region ; and yet they had much to 
 talk of, and the long ride through the shady forest seemed a very 
 short one. 
 
 When mother and daughter joined each other in their own room, 
 there were tears in Mrs. Newton's gentle eyes. 
 
 " The countess has proposed for your hand for her nephew," she 
 said. "This is no surprise to you, my daughter?" 
 
 MRS. NEWTON. 
 
i88 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND . 
 
 " Lajos has explained everything," Alice replied. " He did not 
 feel at Lucerne that he was free to ask any one to be his wife. Even 
 now he does not know whether he offers me the hand of a compara- 
 tively poor man, or that of the owner of the mines. If a young 
 lady to whom he was betrothed in childhood by his aunt and uncle, 
 and whom he has never seen, is found before the fifth of August, he 
 must either marry her — and this he says he will never do — or give up 
 
 all his fortune. It is all so strange ! 
 
 Did the countess tell you about it ? " 
 " Yes, my dear; and I assured her 
 
 that I would be better pleased if Lajos 
 
 were not wealthy, and your fortunes 
 
 were more equal." 
 
 " But in that case he would not 
 
 be able to benefit these poor people, 
 
 for whose welfare he is so much 
 
 concerned." 
 
 " The countess tells me that there 
 is no longer any probability of any 
 claimant appearing," said Mrs. New- 
 ton. " Long ago she exchanged a 
 pledge with a dear friend, that the 
 children in whom they were most in- 
 terested should marry; but the friend died, and the niece has never 
 been heard from, though search has been made for her in Europe 
 and America. She will probably never appear, and her little fortune 
 will remain in Lajos's care, its income legally at his disposal." 
 
 " And as long as it rests in this way he can use the income for 
 the poor miners. It is this that reconciles me to the giving up of 
 my work in Bulgaria. The Board can find some one else to take 
 my place there, but there is no one interested to send a missionary 
 to these poor Magyar miners. Lajos says I can go on with the 
 
 ON' THE FICHTELGEBIRGE. 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. 1 89 
 
 same work that I have been doing ; it will only be a change of scene 
 to people a little more forlorn and forgotten of the world." 
 
 " You will have an opportunity to see them soon, for the countess 
 desires us to visit with her. She wished the marriage to take place at 
 her chateau ; but it seemed to me better that you should proceed to 
 your mission, and take charge there until some one can be secured 
 to take your place. I think I might take it, Alice, if the Board would 
 accept me. I am not so young as you, but I am vigorous, and can 
 look forward to twenty years more of active service." 
 
 " Dear mother, Lajos wishes you to make your home with us." 
 
 " Not at first, dear. I shall come to you when I can no longer be 
 useful at the mission ; but I shall be happier to feel that I have still 
 my own work in the world ; and it will be better for you to grow to 
 understand one another without me. I shall be very near, you know, 
 just over the border, and can go to you, or you can come to me, when- 
 ever we need each other." 
 
 Mrs. Newton was very firm, and this plan was accordingly agreed 
 upon. It seemed to her wise heart that the countess formed an ele- 
 ment of sufficient difficulty in the new household without complicating 
 it by the addition of another outsider. But the whimsical countess 
 seemed to have transferred the affection which she had formerly shown 
 to Margaret to Alice. Any mention of Margaret would bring out a 
 tirade against low-born peasants, and she would assert positively that 
 there had always been something common about Margaret, in spite of 
 her attractive qualities. 
 
 " Ze blood will tell," she remarked sententiously. " She have ze 
 sprightliness of foots of a chamois. Zat come from her ancestors, who 
 have been long climbers of ze Alps. When she wear ze peasant cos- 
 tume, did I not say to her, it is more becoming to you as to ze uzzers, 
 you wear it as if you have been use to it for always ? " 
 
 This was undeniable ; but Alice was somewhat astonished by her 
 next assertion, that Margaret's inability to do anything at the time 
 
190 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 when Alice had saved the countess's life had convinced her that Mar- 
 garet was only a trifling butterfly, while there was something grandly 
 noble in Alice, which was well worthy of confidence and affection. 
 
 " I see many a trial for you in the fickleness of the countess," Mrs. 
 Newton remarked to her daughter. 
 
 " There are trials everywhere," Alice replied, " and Lajos, at least, 
 is not fickle." The happy confidence with which she said this told 
 how perfect was her trust. But Lajos had not yet undergone the final 
 test of his affection ; at least so said pretty Minna Selig, who, dressed 
 as a Hungarian gypsy, told his fortune in a Dresden tea-cup a few 
 nights before they left Baireuth. 
 
 " Beware," she said in sport, " a dark, tall woman who is coming to 
 make trouble between you. She is your Fate, the final test of con- 
 stancy. If your engagement survive her appearing, all will be well." 
 
 There was much merry joking after this dismal fortune, and during 
 their remaining stay every tall, mysterious-looking stranger was laugh- 
 ingly called the Fate; but before the close of the musical festival, 
 Mrs. Newton and Alice, the countess and Lajos, left Baireuth in 
 company to sail down the Danube to the old chateau in the Car- 
 pathians. 
 
 The betrothal had so filled the minds of both Alice and Cecilia 
 that it was not until the day before she left that it occurred to Alice 
 to mention the vinaigrette which they had seen at Einsiedeln. The 
 countess agreed with them that it was very mysterious. 
 
 " I care for zat vinaigrette more especially," she said, "for because 
 it is ze only souvenir I have of my tear friend, Margaret Du Fais. 
 She gave it to me ze day we make our scheme for Lajos and her 
 niece. ' Keep it, my tear,' she say, ' and when you shall see it, you 
 shall sink of zis petrothal.' I have kept it all zese year, and when 
 I lose it I say to myself, It is a sign that my tear friend absolve me 
 from zat promise. I shall see it no longer, zerefore I shall sink no 
 more again to find her niece for Lajos. I am glad ze vinaigrette is 
 
THE WAGNER FESTIVAL. igi 
 
 in a shrine of sacred objects. It was already sacred wiz me. I 
 could not sink it in ze window of ze pawnproker." 
 
 And so they went away, all smiling and happy, not realizing that 
 Lajos's test was all the time steadily approaching. Cecilia lingered in 
 Baireuth. She enjoyed the musical atmosphere of the town, and she 
 intended to remain here until it was time to join Margaret at the 
 Fete of the Vignerons at Vevey. One day, as Cecilia was taking her 
 morning walk, she noticed a tall, angular woman approaching from 
 the railroad station. "If Lajos were here," she thought, "we would 
 all say, ' There is your Fate.' " Something familiar in the figure 
 struck her, and she looked again. It was Annette Stauffer. 
 
192 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 \ ■ 
 
 THE FAIRY COW. 
 
 AS Margaret sped on through the gathering mists, it seemed to 
 her that she heard, across the glacier, the faint tinkle of a silver 
 bell. Was it Brown Velvet ? Very likely ; but she had no time 
 to investigate the sound ; she reached Zermatt much exhausted. 
 
 The most experienced mountaineers had gone up the Matterhorn, 
 but another party of peasants was quickly formed. While they were 
 preparing shovels, picks, and ropes, a thoughtful woman brought 
 Margaret a bowl of hot coffee, and a mule was found on which she 
 rode back with the rescuers. She showed them the trail across the 
 glacier to the avalanche, and then mounted to the chalet, falling into 
 Annette's arms in a dead faint, from utter exhaustion, as she reached 
 the door. 
 
 When she came to herself she was lying on Mother Lochwalder's 
 feather-bed, and the noonday sun was shining across the floor. Mr. 
 Walker lay on the hay in the opposite corner sleeping soundly. 
 Yakob sat in an attitude of great dejection beside the table. Mother 
 Lochwalder was stirring something over the fire. She came to the 
 bedside a few moments later with a bowl of soup. ". Have they come 
 back ? " Margaret asked. 
 
 The old woman nodded, her face working frightfully. 
 
 It was needless to ask anything further, and Margaret drew the 
 poor, bereaved woman down beside her. After a few moments, she 
 rose and asked for her Grandfather. 
 
 " He is in bed," said .Mother Lochwalder, " and doing- well." 
 
THE FAIRY COW. 1 93 
 
 Margaret stole up to the loft, but finding the Judge sleeping peace- 
 fully did not disturb him. As she came down the ladder, she saw that 
 Yakob Lochwalder stood just outside the door and that he beckoned 
 to her. She walked with him out to her favorite seat. 
 
 " Annette asked me to give you this," said Yakob, taking a letter 
 from his pocket. 
 
 " Where is Annette ? " asked Margaret. 
 
 " She has gone away." 
 
 " Gone away ! where ? " 
 
 " I don't know. When the men that you got together came back 
 and said there was no hope, Annette went into one of her queer fits, 
 and said that she must go away, but would come back after a while, and 
 she wrote this letter and told me to give it to you. Annette is a 
 strange girl, but she loved her little cousin, and his loss has nearly 
 crazed her. She cannot bear to stay here, I suppose. I can under- 
 stand the feeling." 
 
 " When did she go away ? " 
 
 " Only an hour ago. She must be in Zermatt now waiting for the 
 diligence to Visp." 
 
 Margaret began to tear open the letter, when her eye was caught 
 by the words, " Not to be opened until I am far away." Margaret was 
 too honorable not to regard the request, and her hand slipped down- 
 ward to place the letter in her pocket. 
 
 Instinctively, at the same time her gaze turned toward the glacier. 
 A little lower than the spot where the fateful accident occurred, it 
 seemed to her that she saw a dark speck upon the shining whiteness. 
 As she looked at it more attentively, she was positive that it moved. 
 She dropped the letter and caught Yakob's arm. His eyes were 
 •better than hers. " It is a cow," he said ; " how could she have crossed 
 the ice-field ? " Margaret told him of the sound of the bell which she 
 had heard the night before, and Yakob hurried to the chalet for the 
 telescope. After a long, earnest gaze, he handed the glass to Marga- 
 
194 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 ret. " It is Brown Velvet," he said; " I suspected it. Now does it not 
 seem as if she must be a fairy cow ? For in the first, how could she 
 have reached the point where she is without wings ? and then, why 
 should she want to go there at all unless it is to seek the Paradise on 
 the Matterhorn ? All the same, I am going after her ; she is too 
 good a cow to lose." 
 
 " You are too weary." 
 
 " No, I have rested ; and I cannot bear sitting still and doing 
 nothing. I cannot even dig my poor boy's grave." 
 
 He rose heavily, and went into the chalet for his alpenstock, axe, 
 and rope, and calling the dog, went down the path. Mr. Walker came 
 from the chalet with him, and came toward Margaret. 
 
 " Are you rested ? " she asked. 
 
 " Perfectly," he replied seriously ; " but my mind is not at rest. 
 Vou will remember that I told you that if I brought your grandfather 
 back, I should have something to ask you." 
 
 A sudden comprehension of what he meant swept over Margaret. 
 
 " Oh, no, not now ! " she cried. 
 
 " But you promised to listen to me, Margaret." 
 
 " If you brought Nikolas, too." 
 
 He made a despairing gesture. " And, since that is impossible, I 
 am to go away, and never come back ? " 
 
 " I did not say that. But this poor family is in such trouble, that 
 it is wicked for us to be happy." 
 
 He sprung toward her, with a great light on his face ; but she 
 avoided him. " I mean it is wicked for us to think of ourselves now. 
 Yes, I do want you to go away for the present, and, meantime, think 
 of Cecilia's song." 
 
 Again he strode toward her; but Margaret was half-way to the 
 chalet, and Mother Lochwalder stood in the door. He could only ask 
 the old woman for his knapsack, and take his leave. 
 
 Margaret went to her grandfather ; he, too, was awake and well, but 
 
THE FAIRY COW. 
 
 195 
 
 much shaken by his experience, and thoroughly cured of his desire to 
 climb the Matterhorn. He descended to the living-room, partook of 
 some supper, and watched Mother Lochwalder and Katchen while 
 they brought the cows in from the main pasture, and performed the 
 evening milking. Margaret set the chalet in order, and came and sat 
 beside her grandfather. They were both thinking of Nikolas. Should 
 they never see the elfish little fellow again, seated among the cattle in 
 the pasture, making his grotesque, whimsical faces, or playing delight- 
 edly upon the zither? 
 
 Suddenly a sweet, low tone thrilled through the quiet, like the 
 vagrant harmonies which he loved to waken. Margaret looked about 
 her furtively. There was no one in sight, and yet the weird music 
 was very real and near. Was it indeed true that the spirits of Zer- 
 matt peasants lingered after death near their old homes, loth to leave 
 the pleasant pastures even for Paradise ? A moment's search revealed 
 the source of the strange sounds. It was really the zither, with which 
 Katchen had propped open the window, and the evening breeze was 
 playing upon it as on an aeolian harp. Margaret sighed, when she 
 made the discovery. It was sweet to think that Nikolas was near. 
 
 He was nearer than she thought. When the cake of snow on 
 which the Judge and Nikolas were carried down the couloir split in 
 two against the rocky buttress, they were carried in different direc- 
 tions, — the Judge, to the glacier, down the path up which they had 
 climbed ; and Nikolas, lower down into a ravine in the mountain 
 leading to a crevasse between the mountain and the glacier. The 
 snow beneath him broke his fall. The snow that followed partially 
 buried him; but the boy struggled to the surface, in no way injured 
 by his adventure. He wandered down the long, narrow ravine to 
 the crevasse, whose steep sides were formed on the one hand by a 
 wall of rock, and on the other by one of ice. He walked along it 
 for fully a quarter of a mile, but could find no way of mounting to 
 the surface. If he had had his pick, he could easily have cut steps 
 
j 96 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 in the perpendicular wall; but unfortunately he had nothing with 
 which to dig, not even a jack-knife. Night came quickly, and although 
 it was midsummer, the icy wall made the ravine, wide as it was, very 
 cold. To keep off the deadly chill, he spent the entire night walk- 
 ino- up and down the ravine. He shouted at intervals, but he was 
 too far away from the rescuers to be heard. . How long the night 
 seemed ! The moon looked down upon him, and he sang and chat- 
 tered to her, — scolding her at first, for her indifference to his misfor- 
 tune, and finally beseeching her to help him. But the moon gave 
 him no help beyond lighting him over the rough places, and giving 
 him a feeling of companionship. Toward morning, even she withdrew ; 
 and there were several hours of darkness, which gradually brightened, 
 through murky mists, into a cold, gray dawn. To keep his heart 
 up, in this most dismal part of his experience, he yodelled cheerily to 
 the lady moon, with the childish hope that he might lure her back. 
 
 Evidently the moon did not hear him ; but there was a friend who 
 caught the faint sound of the distant yodel, and who made her way 
 •painfully across the glacier toward him. That friend was Brown 
 Velvet. Margaret heard her bell as she started on her trip, but she 
 did not hear the call which had attracted the faithful animal. When 
 the sun rose, Nikolas, who was slapping his arm across his chest, and 
 stamping his half-frozen feet, heard the musical tinkle of the silver 
 bell, and looking up, saw the cow looking down wistfully at him. 
 The sight revived his sinking courage. He sang and danced, and 
 talked to her most affectionately. 
 
 " Good Brown Velvet ; dear, beautiful, wise Brown Velvet ; unfold 
 your butterfly wings, and float down into the crevasse, and bear me 
 up to the Paradise on the Matterhorn. You see that I am dead and 
 buried, Brown Velvet." 
 
 The cow continued to regard him plaintively with her great 
 gazelle-like eyes. 
 
 "Ah! I see, then, that I cannot be dead; for it is only dead 
 
THE FAIRY COW. 
 
 I99 
 
 people that go to Paradise. Then, Brown Velvet, go back to the 
 Aim, and tell the people to come and fetch me." 
 
 The cow lowed as though striving to call the boy's friends, but did 
 not leave him. 
 
 " I am hungry, Brown Velvet. I wish you were near enough for 
 me to milk you. Ah ! I had forgotten ; here is the rest of the hare 
 safe inside my blouse. It will make a 
 good breakfast. I wish I could give you 
 some." Nikolas improvidently devoured 
 his entire provision, and somewhat re- 
 freshed, set himself to walking again, the 
 cow following him along the edge of 
 the crevasse. All day long he wandered, 
 fruitlessly striving to extricate himself 
 from his predicament. He managed 
 about noon, with a sharp stone, to cut 
 some steps in the ice, and mounted 
 nearly to the surface, but fell back and 
 twisted his ankle, so that he could walk 
 no longer. He was ready for dinner 
 now, and so was Brown Velvet. She had 
 drunk a little melted snow water, but 
 had begun to think regretfully of the 
 pastures and fodder-rack of the Aim. 
 She turned, and Nikolas heard her bell 
 
 tinkling off into the distance. It seemed to him that he had lost 
 his last friend, and he yodelled loudly. The cow, true to her training, 
 returned, but wandered restlessly about the spot. Nikolas knew that 
 he could not live through another night in the ravine now that he was 
 deprived of the power of keeping himself warm by walking. He 
 wondered, too, how he was to provide himself with dinner or supper, 
 and regretted his greediness of the morning. He remembered one 
 
 A PEASANT OF ZERMATT. 
 
200 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 of his father's fabulous hunting stones of how a chamois hunter 
 
 had fallen into an abyss so deep that it was impossible to find ropes 
 
 long enough to pull him out ; and his true love came every morning 
 
 and threw provisions down to him, and continued her ministrations 
 
 until her lover died of old age. 
 
 His ankle was swelling, and he wrapped it in snow, and then, 
 
 dragging himself back into the ravine as far from the glacier as 
 
 possible, tried to dig a little cave for himself in the mountain side, 
 
 where the stony wall was crumbling, but soon found that this was 
 
 useless. Some crows sailed over far up in the blue, and he wished 
 
 hungrily that he had his father's gun, that he might bring one down 
 
 for supper. His strength and courage were ebbing fast, and he tried 
 
 to repeat his little evening prayer, but could only remember the first 
 
 two lines : 
 
 O, Jesu mein, ganz bin ich dein 
 
 Im Leben und im Sterben. 
 
 It seemed to him that he heard his father calling the cows and singing 
 a stanza of the familiar " Ranz des Vaches." It was no dream; for 
 Brown Velvet heard it, too, and frisked away from the brink of the 
 crevasse. He tried to yodel, but the sound died in his throat in a 
 hoarse gurgle, and he lost all consciousness. 
 
 Yakob had only come part way across the glacier, and had then 
 sent the dog to drive Brown Velvet to him as he stood calling her. 
 The dog obeyed his bidding, frisking about the cow in wide circles 
 and driving her toward his master. In one of these circles he looked 
 down into the crevasse and spied Nikolas. Instantly the intelligent 
 creature stood still and barked to attract his master's attention. But 
 Yakob was weary, and thinking that the dog was attracted by some 
 wild creature, paid no attention to him and proceeded to drive Brown 
 Velvet toward the chalet. When he had almost reached the side of 
 the glacier he saw Mr. Walker coming toward him. 
 
 " You are going to leave us ? " he asked. 
 
THE FAIRY COW. 
 
 20i 
 
 " For a time ; but I will come again and take charge of Judge 
 Houghton. Don't let him make any excursions in my absence." 
 
 " No fear of that; he has had enough, — and I, too." He turned 
 and whistled to his dog, to hide his emotion. " What ails the beast ? 
 I believe he is bewitched. If I had not this cow to attend to I would 
 go over and bring him back in my arms, 
 lame as I am from our tramp." 
 
 " Wait a few minutes, and I will get 
 him." 
 
 Yakob did not say " I thank you," but 
 he looked it ; and Mr. Walker sprang 
 cheerily over the ice, never feeling the 
 ache of strained muscles for the great 
 joy which filled his heart. He called 
 the dog, as he approached, but the ani- 
 mal only danced about and whined. He 
 tried to catch him, but he would not be 
 caught, snapping at him viciously when 
 his hand was almost on him. At last 
 he began to wonder what made the ani- 
 mal act so strangely. " Perhaps there 
 is something in the crevasse," and peer- 
 ing over the edge he, too, discovered — 
 Nikolas ! Then what a cheer he sent 
 
 ringing through the air ! Yakob understood it. There could be but 
 one meaning to such a triumphant shout ; and Yakob gazed at him for 
 a moment, his face transfigured with joy, then forgetting his stiff joints 
 and weariness, and crying, "My boy, my boy!" came leaping across 
 the glacier. 
 
 Mr. Walker looked again at Nikolas, and his heart misgave him. 
 " Is he dead ?" he thought; "are we too late?" He walked up and 
 down the edge of the glacier, looking for a way of descent, but soon 
 
 A PEASANT WOMAN OF THE 
 ZERMATT VALLEY. 
 
202 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 saw that there was none. He called to Nikolas, but the boy did not 
 rouse ; and there was his father coming toward them so joyfully. He 
 could have bitten his tongue for shouting, and yet unaided he could 
 not reach the boy. 
 
 Yakob reached him and looked over the brink, his expression of 
 eager hope changing at once to terrified anxiety. " I have my rope 
 with me," he said. " You must lower me into the crevasse." 
 
 "You are too heavy," Mr. Walker replied. "I could never hold 
 you. 
 
 " True. Then I will lower you — quick ! " 
 
 Yakob attached the rope, and bracing himself carefully, let Mr. 
 Walker down into the ravine. The young man took up Nikolas, and 
 fastened the rope about him, and Yakob drew his son out of the 
 crevasse. He was so absorbed in bringing the boy to consciousness 
 that he quite forgot that Mr. Walker was still below,, and was setting 
 out for home, when he was recalled by a rather impatient shout from 
 the crevasse. He returned quickly, and a moment later Mr. Walker 
 was on the surface. "He is alive!" Yakob exclaimed; "but I must 
 get him to the chalet as quickly as possible. We were not a moment 
 too soon." 
 
 Yakob carried his son across the glacier, but at this point his 
 strength gave out, and Mr. Walker bore him up the mountain side 
 to the chalet. It was a strange but joyful little procession which Mar- 
 garet saw coming as she stepped out into the moonlight for a last view 
 of the valley before retiring. First the good dog, barking loudly, as 
 though he wished to inform the family of the good tidings, then Mr. 
 Walker with Nikolas in his arms, after him Yakob limping along with 
 the assistance of his alpenstock, and last of all the fairy cow, quite 
 tired of her escapade, and following willingly to her manger. 
 
 " I have brought him," Mr. Walker exclaimed, as he laid Nikolas in 
 Margaret's arms, " and now I claim your permission to speak. — I must 
 not be put off any longer." 
 
THE FAIRY COW. 2O3 
 
 "No longer, dear friend," Margaret replied. " It is a night of joy 
 for all of us." 
 
 But Mr. Walker did not rest even now. He saw that the exposure 
 to which Nikolas had been subjected had rendered his condition 
 critical, and though nearly worn out by his exertions, he returned 
 to Zermatt for a physician. Fortunately an eminent English sur- 
 geon was stopping at one of the hotels, and ordering Walker to bed, 
 he grasped his case of instruments and set out at once for the 
 chalet. 
 
 With the exception of badly frozen ears, Nikolas 's injuries were 
 found to be slight. When the surgeon had skilfully amputated these 
 enormous deformities, Margaret was surprised to find how the face 
 gained. His long locks would cover the cropping, and the other fea- 
 tures had always been good, but he had been in the habit of distorting 
 them with hideous grimaces. Lately, however, a more intellectual 
 expression had come into his face, and as the boy lay sleeping peace- 
 fully, Margaret foresaw that it would develop into something very like 
 beauty. He would always be petite, but his only deformity now was 
 the twisted ankle, and this the surgeon was sure could be straightened. 
 
 Mother Lochwalder and Yakob were full of happiness and grati- 
 tude, and were willing to entrust Katchen and Nikolas entirely to 
 Margaret. She accordingly decided that as soon as the Judge and 
 Nikolas were able to travel she would proceed with them and with 
 Katchen to Vevey. Mr. Walker persuaded them to go by way of 
 Mont Blanc, and to reach this point by a little tour into Italy. The 
 recovery was so rapid that in ten days' time they were ready to 
 set out, and the Judge, Margaret, and Mr. Walker took their last view 
 from the favorite lookout. 
 
 Just before leaving Margaret remembered Annette's letter. " I 
 must have left it on my* lookout just as we discovered Brown Velvet 
 on the glacier." 
 
 She went in search with Katchen, but could find no trace of it, 
 
204 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 until Katchen cried, " Brown Velvet is munching something over 
 there in the pasture." 
 
 The child ran to her and pulled a piece of paper from between her 
 teeth. It was torn and faded ; they could just make out that it was 
 Annette's letter, but that was all. Her confession was quite illegible, 
 and Margaret left the Aim, bidding a regretful farewell to Mother 
 Lochwalder, her dear aunt, as she still thought her. Yakob, who had 
 already suggested this trip, went with them as guide as far as Aosta. 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 205 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 
 
 Long could I have stood 
 
 With a religious awe, contemplating 
 
 That house, the highest in the ancient world, 
 
 And destined to perform from age to age 
 
 The noblest service, welcoming as guests 
 
 All of all nations and of every faith — 
 
 A temple sacred to humanity ! 
 
 Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains, 
 
 They crowned him long ago, 
 On a throne of rock in a robe of clouds, 
 
 With a diadem of snow. 
 
 THE party made the excursion on mule-back by way of the Pass 
 of St. Theodule to the village of Breuil, and thence up the Val 
 de Tournache to Chatillon, where they spent the night. All 
 the way they had magnificent views of the Matterhorn and the Italian 
 ranges. The Judge bore the journey in its easy stages very well, and 
 to Nikolas the widening of his horizon seemed and was the opening 
 of a new life. 
 
 At Aosta Yakob bade them farewell with tears in his honest eyes, 
 and returned with the mules to Zermatt. 
 
 ,The valley of Aosta is justly celebrated for its beautiful scenery, 
 Mont Blanc rising grandly in the north. Cheever says of it, " I have 
 seen Mont Blanc from all the best points of view, with every advan- 
 tage ; but all taken together, no other view is to be compared for its 
 ' magnificence with this in the Val d'Aoste." 
 
 Margaret came to the conclusion that there were so many sublime 
 
206 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 and beautiful views amf>ng the Alps that comparison was impossible. 
 She could not tell whether the Jungfrau and her wonderful brothers, 
 Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, or Mont Blanc were the more admirable. 
 She would not rank them, as her grandfather did, according to their 
 height, — 
 
 Mont Blanc . 15.784 feet - 
 
 Monte Rosa 
 
 The Dom 
 
 Lyskam 
 
 Weisshorn 
 
 Matterhorn 
 
 Finsetraarhorn 
 
 Aletschhorn 
 
 Breithorn 
 
 Jungfrau 
 
 15,223 feet. 
 
 14,935 feet. 
 
 14,889 feet. 
 
 14,804 feet. 
 
 14,705 feet. 
 
 14,039 feet. 
 
 13,803 feet. 
 
 13,685 feet. 
 
 13,671 feet. 
 
 It was nothing to her that the Jungfrau stood last in this list of 
 high peaks, and that the Rigi was only 5,905 feet in height, a mere 
 mole-hill in the catalogue. She remembered the mountains by the 
 sensations which they had awakened ; and according to this scale the 
 Jungfrau stood first for beauty, and the Matterhorn for terror. Mont 
 Blanc lifted itself now, a monument of solemn thanksgiving and 
 consecration. She could not forget that she had just received her 
 own back from the dead, and that she rode along this beautiful valley 
 in the first days of her betrothal, her life crowned by one of the richest 
 gifts this world can give — a good man's love. Livingston Walker 
 shared the same sentiment of awe. His happiness seemed too great 
 to be true ; and often, as his gaze rested on Margaret, there were 
 happy tears in his eyes. The Judge had given his blessing; and 
 although the engagement was referred for its final seal to Margaret's 
 parents, there was no question as to what their answer would be. It 
 would be a long engagement, for he had his way to make in the world. 
 And Margaret knew that the adoption of the two Lochwalder children 
 
THE GREAT ST BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 207 
 
 would make such heavy draughts on her own liberal allowance that 
 her wedding day must be postponed in consequence. But she did not 
 hesitate, nor did her betrothed disapprove the generous action. "It 
 is not generosity at all," Margaret had insisted, " but simple justice, 
 for they are my ow~n family." 
 
 And so to both these young people Mont Blanc was the " monarch 
 of mountains," not because it was the highest in Europe, or because 
 the views in its vicinity greatly excelled those of the Jungfrau, the 
 Matterhorn, or the Aletschhorn, from the great glacier where Walker 
 had recently been wandering, but because he had no joy in his heart 
 to keep it warm in that great sepulchral chamber, and because Mar- 
 garet viewed this scene with infinitely greater elevation of feeling 
 than she had hitherto experienced. 
 
 They rested for a day at Aosta, and examined its Roman ruins, — 
 an amphitheatre and a triumphal arch, — for it is a very ancient city, 
 rebuilt by the Emperor Augustus, who stationed here three thousand 
 soldiers, and its name is a corruption of Augusta. 
 
 St. Bernard was archdeacon of the cathedral- of this city, but left 
 the charming valley, in the year 962, to found the hospice in the cruel 
 mountain pass, for the succor of travellers who, without this shelter, 
 would not infrequently perish in the storms. 
 
 This was their next objective point ; and here they were hospitably 
 entertained by the monks. Few realize what it is to live always 
 among the snows ; for even in summer, water always freezes here in 
 the morning ; and in the winter the roads are covered with enormous 
 drifts, sometimes forty feet in depth. Ten or twelve of the brethren 
 of St. Augustine remain here, isolated from the rest of the world, 
 through the dreary winter season. They are all young men, selected 
 for their physical powers ; but pneumonia and consumption frequently 
 fasten upon them, and they do not live out the period of their vow, 
 which is fifteen years. Their labors are arduous, and necessitate their 
 going out in all weather. There is a shelter lower down upon the 
 
208 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 road, where belated travellers frequently take refuge, and the monks 
 visit it with their dogs every morning, and bring any one whom they 
 may find to the convent. A grave young man of eighteen, who had 
 recently taken the vow, showed our travellers the buildings, and 
 explained everything. The hospice is of gray stone, very solid, but 
 bare, and suggesting a penitentiary. The young monk showed them 
 into the parlor, where there was a piano given by the Prince of 
 Wales, and a harmonium, by the composer Blumenthal. This was 
 the first good piano that Nikolas had seen ; and he pounced upon it 
 like a bird of prey upon a lamb, and could with difficulty be dragged 
 from it. 
 
 " I am glad," said Margaret to the monk, " that you have such 
 a good collection of books with which to while away the weary 
 hours." 
 
 The young man smiled. " The hours are indeed weary," he 
 replied ; " but not from lack of employment. Besides the work of the 
 house, and the care of our dogs, cows, and mules, the search for 
 the lost, and the entertainment of guests — a never-failing occupation 
 during summer — is the cutting of wood. The difficulty of trans- 
 portation renders fuel expensive ; and we lay in vast stores of fagots, 
 of wood, and of hay, for the winter consumption." 
 
 The mention of dogs reminded them of one of the chief attractions 
 of the convent ; and they were taken to the kennels, and shown the 
 noble animals who assist the monks in their searches. In 1830 the 
 dogs all perished in a terrific storm, and the breed would have become 
 extinct but for the fact that a pack had been sent to Hollingen, near 
 Berne, which was now returned to the hospice. Tfre monk told them 
 many interesting anecdotes of the sagacity of these dogs, — some of 
 them are occasionally sent out alone, with a little flask of cordial 
 attached to their collars. He said that they showed great uneasiness 
 when the weather was stormy, as though anxious to be sent. When 
 they find an unfortunate they bark loudly, and if not heard, will clear 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 2 1 1 
 
 the snow from him, and then run back, and by their capering and 
 intelligent actions make themselves understood. The most famous 
 of the St. Bernard dogs was Barry, who rescued forty persons. On 
 one occasion he discovered a little boy, whose mother had been killed 
 by an avalanche, and inducing the little fellow to mount on his back, 
 carried him triumphantly to the convent. The monk told them that 
 this dog, after dying of old age, had been stuffed, and was to be seen 
 at the museum of Berne. 
 
 The Judge strongly desired to bring away a pup with him to 
 America, but after considering the matter, decided that the animal 
 would probably be more useful at the hospice than at a New York 
 mansion. " Nikolas and Katchen are pets enough," he said to Mar- 
 garet. " I must help you in the maintenance of those children, and 
 I will give up the idea of a St. Bernard dog." 
 
 How many guests can you entertain ? " he asked of the monk, his 
 lecture note-book in hand. 
 
 " The hospice has eighty beds," the monk replied, " but we have 
 sheltered as many as five hundred persons in one day, and entertain 
 annually from eight to nine thousand. The heaviest work of the 
 convent was done at the time that Napoleon crossed the Alps in his 
 forced march in May, 1800." 
 
 " I have heard that the convent is very rich in estates scattered 
 through Switzerland." 
 
 " It was so formerly. In 1480 it was at the height of its prosperity, 
 for it owned ninety-eight livings. Now it possesses only a vineyard 
 at Clarens and a farm at Roch." 
 
 The monk next asked them if they would like to visit the morgue, 
 where the bodies of such travellers as are found frozen to death are 
 kept subject to the identification of their friends. 
 
 Margaret declined this invitation and remained in the parlor with 
 the children, but the Judge and Mr. Walker visited the melancholy 
 building. Here were many bodies preserved by the cold, dry air; a 
 
2 1 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 mother still clasping her babe to her bosom, a strong man with a 
 terrible expression of suffering frozen upon his features, and many- 
 others, some crumbling to bone and dust, and others more or less 
 perfect after the lapse of many years. 
 
 After a comfortable night's rest our friends passed on their way, 
 the Judge leaving a handsome gratuity in recognition of the hospi- 
 tality received, and the noble work done for humanity by the monks 
 of St. Bernard. 
 
 " If anybody had told me," he said, as they rode away, " that I, a 
 member of the Presbyterian Church, in good and regular standing, 
 would contribute to the support of a popish monastery, I would have 
 thought that either he or I had gone insane." 
 
 As they emerged from the pass into the Rhone Valley, they were 
 reminded of Dr. Bartol's remarks on the Pass of St. Bernard : — 
 
 " In this as in the other passes, one is struck with the thought that 
 God never builds up in the world an insuperable wall, but provides 
 everywhere for his creatures an exit, some way of escape. Wide and 
 deep from the valley of the Rhone opens the solemn door of the pass 
 as for an army to march along. 
 
 " The Pass of the Spliigen stands alone in the ghastly grandeur of 
 the Via Mala, or Evil Way, where, betwixt opposing precipices, in 
 some places nearly a third of a mile in height and often only a few 
 yards apart, extending through a space of more than four miles, the 
 most wonderful engineering has built a road along gulfs which it 
 might be thought possible to span with nothing larger than a thread 
 in the mouth of a carrier dove. Surely we can at length pass any- 
 where, out of whatsoever difficulty, if we have been able to pass 
 here." 
 
 " There is one range of ' mountains before me," said Walker, 
 " through which I do not as yet see any pass. I mean my future. 
 I have prepared myself thoroughly as a civil and mining engineer. I 
 hope to find employment in the western part of the United States, 
 
BARRY, THE BRAVE DOG OF ST. BERNARD. 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 2 I 5 
 
 but as yet the way seems shut by an impenetrable wall. However, I 
 shall not be discouraged, but look for the pass. You have mentioned 
 the Pass of the Spliigen. I went over it this summer by diligence, 
 and the awful beauty of the Via Mala fully justifies what has been 
 written of it." 
 
 " Tell me more of that trip," Margaret asked. " So much of con- 
 sequence has happened that I have not heard as much as I would like 
 of your summer wanderings." 
 
 " From the Spliigen I pursued a northeast course through the 
 beautiful valley of the Engadine to Innsbruck, thence to Salzburg, 
 from which city I made a flying pilgrimage to the lakes of the Tyrol, 
 — the Konigsee, the Obersee, and the Traunsee. At the Salz- 
 Kammergat, one of the most interesting salt-mines in the world, I 
 met a young Austrian who interested me in some lead-mines in 
 Hungary. I had remarked on the terrible condition of the miners, 
 and he told me that what interested him at these other mines was 
 not the engineering, which seemed to him rather old-fashioned, but 
 the attempt made by the owner to alleviate the condition of his 
 laborers. As my chance acquaintance, a Herr Hauptman in the 
 Austrian army, was on his way back to his post, I determined to 
 accompany him, and see something of the enterprise in question." 
 
 Margaret had been listening with increasing interest. 
 
 " What was the name of the mines and of their owner ? " she asked. 
 
 " The mines were called Nagy Krajova. I believe Nagy means 
 'great,' and Krajova is the family name of the nobleman who is the 
 owner of the estate, the Count Krajova Lajos, putting the Christian 
 name last according to the Hungarian fashion." 
 
 " Delightful ! " Margaret exclaimed. " I knew as soon as you 
 began to tell about them that it must be Lajos. Did you really 
 visit the mines ? And had he begun reforms ? He told me that 
 he intended to institute them, but he did not talk as if he had already 
 accomplished anything." 
 
2l6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Indeed he has accomplished a great deal. I know of no miners 
 whose families live in as comfortable cottages and have as much done 
 for their well-being. While I was there an order came to erect a new 
 building, which is to serve as schoolhouse and public library. I was 
 sorry not to see the gentleman, but they told me he was travelling 
 in Switzerland." 
 
 " You had a glimpse of him at Glion, the evening you passed us by 
 with such disdain," Margaret replied, mischievously. " He is a delight- 
 ful man, and we learned to know him well and like him immensely, 
 almost as well as a certain scornful scholar of my acquaintance." 
 
 " However admirable he may be as a philanthropist," Mr. Walker 
 replied, with a trace of pique, " he is the most unpractical man for the 
 proprietor of a large mine of any that I know. It only proves what I 
 have often heard, that a man cannot attend to everybody's business 
 and his own at the same time." 
 
 " I like the Count Lajos all the better," Margaret replied, with some 
 warmth, "for first thinking of the welfare of those dependent upon 
 him." 
 
 " It seems to me that the first concern of a business man is his 
 business, and there are immense resources in the count's mine if they 
 were only properly developed. I do not mean to the prejudice of his 
 workmen, but simply by the application of modern methods." 
 
 " Then it seems to me that Count Lajos and you ought to be rolled 
 into one man. Seriously, Livingston, I fancy that I have some influ- 
 ence with him and that he might engage you as overseer of his mine, 
 perhaps even take you into partnership if I asked it". 
 
 " Please do not think of it. I do not wish to owe my advancement 
 in life to wire-pulling, and still less would I be willing that you should 
 put yourself in the position of asking so great a favor from this man." 
 
 He did not say aloud, " whose successful rival I am," but he thought 
 it, and with no feeling of vexation with Margaret. " Who could help 
 loving her ? " he thought. " Poor Count Krajova, I am richer than 
 you." 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 
 
 217 
 
 THE BARON. 
 
 that a gentle- 
 
 Their next stopping-place was the Valley of Chamouni, which they 
 reached by a delightful drive by way of the Tete Noir. 
 
 A well-known author has said that it is useless to use mountainous 
 words to present mountainous things, and the 
 beauties of this celebrated valley have been 
 too often described, both in prose and verse, 
 to need an extended account here. The mon- 
 arch of mountains rose grandly before them, 
 but Margaret was disappointed to find in the 
 valley a collection of fashionable hotels like 
 those of Interlaken, with all the modern con- 
 veniences and inconveniences of porters, tele- 
 phones, electric bells, and waiters in evening- 
 dress. " It has been well said," Mr. Walker remarked, 
 
 man is only to be distinguished from his 
 valet by his aristocratic expression of in- 
 nocuous imbecility." 
 
 " Switzerland is indeed the summer- 
 house of the world," Margaret replied, 
 " and this is just the place for ' Calumet 
 and Hecla ' to appear again." That very 
 afternoon they caught a glimpse of the 
 familiar face, which bore now the unfa- 
 miliar name of the Baroness of Hohen- 
 schlosse. 
 
 The listless expression changed to a 
 momentary gleam of pleasure as she rec- 
 ognized Margaret. She dropped her hus- 
 band's arm presently and came to the part 
 of the veranda where Margaret was sitting. 
 
 " I am married," she said, with a little flash of pride. " I am really a 
 
 BARONESS OF HOHENSCHLOSSE. 
 
 baroness now. 
 
 Mother has gone back to America. 
 
 He did not want 
 
2l8 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 her to live with us. I'm so sorry you didn't marry that handsome 
 count ; then I could have seen you now and then. I foresee that I 
 shall be a little lonely, for he wants me to drop my American friends ; 
 but if you were a countess he would let you visit me. Good by ; he is 
 beckoning to me." 
 
 " And to think," Margaret said to herself with deep self-scorn, 
 " that when I was in Lucerne I was like that ! " 
 The Judge manifested no desire to climb 
 Mont Blanc, though Mr. Walker assured him 
 that it was not so dangerous as the Matter- 
 horn. " It has been made this season," he 
 informed the Judge, " by several Americans ; 
 and among others by Dr. John S. White of 
 New York, and by his son, a Harvard student, 
 whose intellectual and athletic prowess at the 
 age of seventeen are alike remarkable. It has 
 also been made by ladies. The first was a 
 French woman, Mademoiselle d'Angeville, who 
 accomplished it in 1840. The rarity of the 
 atmosphere frequently causes a giddiness, and 
 even temporary insanity, which is known to 
 the guides as the mountain sickness. It is 
 an expensive trip, for besides provisions and 
 equipments, four or more guides must be en- 
 gaged, at twenty dollars apiece." 
 
 " None of my money shall go in that way," 
 said the cautious Judge. "Experience is the best school-teacher; 
 but she's a very expensive one, as I have ascertained." 
 
 The remainder of the party improved the day — a remarkably 
 clear one — by climbing to a sightly point called " The Chapeau," a 
 cliff -opposite Montanvert, where a hut had been erected for the use 
 of travellers ; and here one clear day they enjoyed a picnic and a 
 
 TO THINK THAT I WAS 
 LIKE THAT ! " 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC. 219 
 
 magnificent view of the mighty Mer de Glace, formed by the union 
 of three glaciers, and not inappropriately named ; for its sharp pin- 
 nacles are not unlike the stormy waves of an angry sea. 
 
 " I think Shelley has best described this spot," said Margaret, 
 reading the following selection made for the Judge's note-book : — 
 
 "The glaciers creep 
 Like snakes that watch their prey from their far fountains, 
 Slowly rolling on ; there many a precipice, 
 Frost and the sun in scorn of mortal power 
 Have piled dome, pyramid, and pinnacle ; 
 A city of death, distinct with many a tower 
 And wall impregnable of beaming ice. 
 Yet not a city ; but a flood of ruin 
 Is there, that from the boundaries of the sky 
 Rolls its perpetual stream ; vast pines are strewing 
 Its destined path, or in the mangled soil 
 Branchless and shattered stand ; the rocks, drawn down 
 From yon remotest waste, have overthrown 
 The limits of the dead and living world, 
 Never to be reclaimed." 
 
 " The Glacier des Bossons at Chamouni is a striking example of 
 the exactitude with which the progressive motion has been calculated 
 by scientists," said Mr. Walker. " Dr. Hamel and three guides were 
 swept away by an avalanche, and buried deeply upon this glacier 
 in the summer of 1822. It was impossible to recover their bodies; 
 but Professor Forbes, on examining the locality where they perished, 
 foretold that, according to his rate of glacier motion, they would 
 appear at the bottom of the glacier in forty years. In 1862 relatives 
 and friends of the lost men, as well as scientists anxious to investigate 
 the truth of this theory, were on the spot, and many relics of the 
 party were discovered : a lantern, a straw hat, a luncheon done up 
 carefully, parts of a ladder, and several bodies, one of which was 
 recognized." 
 
2 20 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " I think," said Margaret, " that the. incident has been utilized in 
 a novel. A young man is lost in this way, and after the lapse of 
 forty years, his betrothed revisits the spot, and is confronted by his 
 fresh young face, preserved unchanged in the snow, while her own 
 has grown wrinkled and old." 
 
 " I read in the Boston Transcript of a terrible accident which 
 occurred here in 1870," continued Mr. Walker. " Three travellers, 
 two of whom were Americans, John C. Randall of Quincy, Mass., 
 and Dr. James B. Beane, a young physician of Baltimore, with three 
 guides and four porters, attempted the ascent, and were all lost. 
 The trip requires two days, and the party had spent the first night 
 at the shelter of Les Grands Mulets, setting the usual signal to 
 inform watchers below of their safe arrival. They completed the 
 ascent the next morning, and were seen in the afternoon descending 
 the mountain. Suddenly, as those who watched described it, a veil 
 seemed to be thrown over them, and they disappeared. 
 
 " At night no lights were shown at the Grand Mulets, and the worst 
 fears were indulged. At five o'clock the next morning a relief party 
 of thirty was organized and started out. They encountered a terrific 
 tempest of sleet and snow, and were out all the following night, throw- 
 ing the village of Chamouni into a panic of apprehension for their 
 safety. They returned, however, after a fruitless search, reporting that 
 such quantities of snow had fallen that all land-marks were covered, 
 and that no human being could have survived such a night on the 
 upper part of the mountain. Several days later the bodies of some of 
 the party were found. They were seated, and Dr. Beane held a note- 
 book containing several entries. The last, dated the night of the 
 storm, was this : ' We have dug a grotto in the snow at a height of 
 15,000 feet. I have no hope of descending; my feet are frozen and I 
 am exhausted. I have only strength to write these words. I die 
 believing in Jesus Christ, with the sweet thought of my family, my 
 friendships, and all. I hope we shall meet in heaven.' " 
 
THE GREAT ST. BERNARD AND MONT BLANC, 22 1 
 
 A little silence fell on the party after reading these words. The 
 escape of the Judge and Nikolas was so recent that they seemed to 
 bear a personal import. 
 
 " What did you think of, Nikolas,' 1 Margaret asked, " as you lay in 
 the ravine just before you were rescued ? " 
 
 " I did not think that I was going to die," the boy replied. " I 
 remembered the story you told me of the angels appearing to the 
 shepherds, and the last thing that I remember is wondering if they 
 would come and lift me out, and thinking that perhaps we had made a 
 mistake in keeping cows instead of sheep, because the angels loved 
 shepherds better than cow-keepers. That was foolish, was it not? 
 Now I know that the good angels love us all." 
 
222 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 With antics and with fooleries, 
 
 With clappings and with laughter, 
 They fill the streets of Burgos ; 
 
 And the devil he comes after. 
 For the King had hired the horned fiend, 
 
 For fifteen maravedis ; 
 And there he goes, with hoofs for toes, 
 
 To terrify the ladies. 
 
 Lockh art's " Spanish Ballads." 
 
 ANNETTE, driven by an accusing conscience, had gone to 
 Baireuth to make her confession to Cecilia. She had written 
 a full statement of her deception, and left it for Margaret to 
 read ; but she could not bear to face Margaret with it. Cecilia, we 
 know, had always exercised a good influence over Annette, and to her 
 she went in her hour of remorse. She hoped, too, to find the myste- 
 rious countess, and through her to ascertain all the facts in regard 
 to Margaret's aunt, and thus make some reparation for her fault. 
 
 Brown Velvet, it will be remembered, had eaten up Annette's 
 written confession, and Margaret was now approaching Vevey, hav- 
 ing completed the circle of her Swiss tour in entire ignorance of her 
 real position. The countess and her party had left Baireuth before 
 Annette's arrival, but Cecilia received her kindly, heard the miserable 
 story patiently, and while she did not attempt to lessen the girl's 
 realization of her sin, helped her earnestly in her repentant efforts. 
 Letters were immediately dispatched to the countess and to Lajos. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 223 
 
 Cecilia remembered that the name of Margaret Du Fais, which 
 Annette now declared was that of Margaret's great-aunt, was that of 
 the countess's old friend, of whose property Lajos was the guardian. 
 
 " Have you any proof of this ? " Cecilia had asked, " other than 
 your own statement ? " 
 
 " I have the letter of Margaret's aunt," Annette replied. " I took 
 it from the desk just before leaving New York, for I had an idea that 
 it might be useful in some way." 
 
 " It will be very useful in identifying the Baroness Du Fais," 
 Cecilia replied. And she accordingly added a postcript to her letter 
 to the countess, asking her if she possessed any scrap of her friend's 
 writing to send it, that the chirography might be compared. 
 
 " This information is sure to create grave complications," she said 
 to Annette ; " and you must wait here until we hear from the 
 countess." 
 
 An answer came in a few days in the person of Lajos himself. He 
 had hardly more than arrived at home, when the news came, but it 
 was of such importance, that he dropped his plans for improving 
 the condition of the miners, and returned immediately to Baireuth. 
 He reported the countess as completely prostrated by the shock. She 
 was unable to travel, but sent in her stead the family lawyer, Kisfaludy 
 Janos. Annette's deposition was taken, and the letter in her posses- 
 sion compared with several sent by the countess, and found to be in 
 the same delicate but eccentric script. The statements in the baron- 
 ess's letter tallied exactly with the facts which were known to exist, 
 and a crowning proof was the seal, the mailed hand bearing the fire- 
 brand, which Lajos recognized at once as the crest of his aunt's friend. 
 
 The next step was to apprise Margaret. Annette persisted that she 
 had already done so, but a letter arrived from Margaret at this junc- 
 ture, written from the hospice of St. Bernard, reminding Cecilia that 
 the time was approaching when they had agreed to meet at Vevey, 
 and speaking of Katchen and Nikolas as her cousins. Cecilia read 
 
224 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 this letter to Annette, and the girl was overwhelmed, at first with joy 
 at the news that Nikolas was saved, and then with fear lest Margaret 
 should decide to have nothing to do with the children when she ascer- 
 tained that they were not her relatives. 
 
 " She was so fond of Nikolas," Annette said, " that long after I 
 regretted my deception, I kept it up for his sake, for she had planned 
 
 to do such great things for him. I do not 
 think I would ever have had the courage to 
 confess if I had not thought that he was dead, 
 and my confession could do him no harm." 
 
 Annette determined that she would go to 
 Vevey with Cecilia to take the children back 
 to Zermatt in case Margaret wished to give 
 them up. Now that she had eased her con- 
 science by confession, she felt that she could 
 even endure seeing Margaret, and the Hun- 
 garian lawyer was of the opinion that as chief 
 witness in the affair, her presence was neces- 
 sary until it was entirely settled. 
 
 The four accordingly set out together. As 
 
 they were a little in advance of the appointed 
 
 time of meeting, Cecilia and Annette stopped 
 
 for two days in Berne, the capital of the Swiss 
 
 Confederacy, the impatient Lajos hurrying on with his lawyer to 
 
 Vevey. 
 
 Had we time and space, an interesting chapter might be given to 
 this ancient city, and to an explanation of the Swis government, which 
 in many respects resembles that of the United States, of America. 
 
 A republican constitution was formed in 1848, against which the 
 monarchies of Europe protested without effect. Twenty-two little 
 cantons form the Swiss Republic ; some of them are not larger than 
 American counties, and the entire number of inhabitants scarcely 
 
 A STUDENT OF BERNE. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 225 
 
 exceeds three millions. It is a republic in miniature, but its citizens 
 have a more direct power in making their own laws than those of our 
 own country. 
 
 f 
 
 HIGH STREET, BERNE. 
 
 Should thirty thousand citizens or eight cantons disapprove of any 
 law made by the Parliament it must be submitted to popular vote. 
 
226 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " The people, not the president, hold the final veto power in Switzer- 
 land." Indeed he has very little power of any kind and is only elected 
 for one year. It is said that a session of the Swiss Parliament is a 
 curious spectacle ; for the discussions are conducted in all three of the 
 languages used in the confederation, — French, German, and Italian. 
 The official interpreters repeat every remark made, translating it into 
 the other languages so that all the members may understand. 1 
 
 The new parliament houses are very handsome, but Cecilia was 
 more interested in the antique architecture of the city. 
 
 She stood before the clock tower at noon and watched the proces- 
 sion of puppets, the knight in armor, and the bears, which file out as 
 chimes strike the hour of twelve ; and she drank of the ogre foun- 
 tain, erected to commemorate the possibly mythical story of the 
 murder of a child by the Jews. 
 
 Cecilia and Annette reached Glion only to find that every room in 
 the house was taken, and that she had carelessly neglected to secure 
 her own. A glance at the register reassured her; Margaret was here, 
 and she asked to be shown to her room. 
 
 Margaret was delighted to share her room with her friend, and 
 ordered a mattress laid upon the floor of her little dressing-room for 
 Annette, which was the best that could be done in the way of hospi- 
 tality. They slept little that night, however, for each of the girls had 
 a great deal to say. Lajos had not yet found Margaret, so that 
 Cecilia had the pleasure of first communicating the news. 
 
 " I do not quite understand what it all means," Margaret said, after 
 the first shock was over; "but one thing is certain, I shall not give 
 up the children. As for Annette, I forgive her freely. Like Joseph's 
 brethren, she ' thought evil, but God meant it for good.' I never 
 could have understood in any other way how the poor live, or have 
 sympathized with their troubles so intimately if I had not believed 
 
 1 The author is indebted for information in regard to the Swiss government to an article by 
 S. H. M. Byers, published in the Youth's Companion for March, 1889. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 227 
 
 that I shared them. And after all, are we not of one great 
 family ? " 
 
 Annette, who was at her old trick of listening at the door, could 
 not contain her gratitude, but burst in and threw herself at Margaret's 
 feet, weeping and blessing her. 
 
 Margaret was deeply affected. " There, Cousin Annette, that will 
 do," she said. " We will not tell Mother Lochwalder or Yakob any- 
 thing about this. I will be their 'lady 
 cousin ' still. Go back and care for 
 them while they live, and rest assured 
 that Katchen and Nikolas are as dear 
 to me as ever." 
 
 Although Lajos and Mr. Kisfaludy 
 had arrived at Glion for two days be- 
 fore this, it so happened that they had 
 not yet met Margaret ; for, owing to 
 the crowded state of the hotel, they 
 had been obliged to take a room at a 
 hotel at Montreux. Lajos had tiwice 
 mounted the hill to call upon Margaret, 
 but had not found her at home. He 
 had written her, asking her to appoint 
 an hour when he might call ; but the 
 clerk had so much to attend to that he 
 forgot to deliver the letter, and it was 
 
 not until the latter part of the fete that good fortune brought them 
 together. 
 
 The festival lasted five days, beginning on the 12th of August, 
 with spectacles on the mornings of four of the days. On Wednesday, 
 the 14th, there was a performance in the evening; but the day was 
 reserved as a rest for the performers. The Judge had secured tickets, 
 some time in advance, at five dollars each, for seats in the great 
 amphitheatre for Thursday. 
 
 KATCHEN AMERICANIZED. 
 
221 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Every means of conveyance from Glion was packed ; but here, too, 
 our friends had been so wise as to secure a carriage on their first 
 arrival. They left Glion early in the morning, passed many pedes- 
 trians on their way, and many vehicles filled beyond their capacity. 
 The boats were loaded to the water's edge ; and though extra trains 
 were run, hundreds of disappointed passengers were left standing 
 
 upon the platforms of the stations. At 
 the entrance to the out-of-door theatre 
 it was still worse. Although the seats, 
 erected upon scaffolding three stories 
 high, contained twelve thousand per- 
 sons, four or five thousand who arrived 
 on Wednesday were unable to obtain 
 admission. 
 
 Three sides of the vast enclosure were 
 framed by the tiers of seats. The fourth 
 side was occupied by three monumental " 
 entrances dedicated to Pallas, Bacchus, 
 and Ceres. The background was formed 
 
 by the beautiful line of the mountains. 
 At exactly a quarter of eight an hundred 
 handsome Switzers in national costume, 
 preceded by a band of music, marched 
 in, and took positions on each side. 
 They were received with the enthusiastic 
 applause of their compatriots, some of whom were heard to express 
 the wish that Bismarck might have seen them. " Yes," said one 
 sturdy Bernese, "he would see then what stuff our boys are made 
 of, and would not talk so lightly of suppressing the Swiss Republic 
 by force of arms." While the bells of the town rang eight o'clock 
 the three corteges of Spring, Summer, and Autumn made their entrance 
 amidst the salvos of artillery. 
 
 AT THE FESTIVAL. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 229 
 
 After a Swiss hymn chanted by the full chorus, and the invocations 
 of the high priests, dances were executed by each of the three com- 
 panies, commencing by the " Children of Spring," charming little 
 cherubs from five to eight years of age. Then the mowers, robed in 
 sky-blue, simulated the cutting of grass, and shepherds and shepherd- 
 esses, costumed in pale rose, led in beautiful troops of snow-white 
 lambs. The gardeners next appeared, bearing arches twined with 
 roses, forming a lovely arbor through 
 which troops of pretty girls danced 
 merrily. Then, filling the air with the 
 bray of their mighty Alpine horns, 
 came the herdsmen and dairy-maids, 
 conducting beautiful cows, and here 
 Nikolas's enthusiasm knew no bounds, 
 though he declared that none of the 
 was so handsome as 
 
 prize animals 
 Brown Velvet. 
 
 Fribourg sang the Ranz des Vaches. 
 The suite which accompanied Spring 
 ended, and a group of haymakers 
 dressed in red, carrying scythes and 
 forks, gleaners in white bearing sheaves, 
 and thrashers with flails, did honor to 
 
 the goddess Summer, while a great mill came tottering in to complete 
 the representation. To represent Autumn, a pretty ballet was danced 
 to music by vintagers who executed all the processes of gathering- 
 grapes and placing them in baskets which the boys emptied into a 
 wine-press. Then came the triumphal car of Bacchus, escorted by a 
 company of dancing Bacchantes, fauns and thyrsus-bearers. 
 
 To close the performance and to stand for Winter, a village mar- 
 riage procession was enacted. Among the guests were the twenty- 
 two Swiss cantons dressed in the peasant costume appropriate to each. 
 
 A celebrated singer of 
 
 TAKING IT ALL IN. 
 
23O THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The notary, in a black satin gown, followed ; then a group of fiddlers 
 and pretty children bearing the wedding presents ; a dowry-wagon, 
 loaded with the bride's furniture, and a band of huntsmen. It was a 
 beautiful spectacle, and one which fully justified the enthusiastic 
 praises which the countess had bestowed upon a former representa- 
 tion. Margaret was very glad that their tour in Switzerland had 
 chanced to include this privilege. 
 
 But after the close of the performance the utmost confusion reigned. 
 Passengers for Lausanne were obliged to wait for several hours at the 
 railway station, though long trains of forty-five cars and three loco- 
 motives had been provided. At the landings it was still worse. On 
 the frail wharf without a railing were crowded hundreds of people 
 desiring to embark in different directions, so that when the steamer 
 for Geneva arrived many were borne on board by the press, and 
 carried away who had an entirely opposite destination. 
 
 In attempting to reach their carriage Margaret was separated from 
 her friends, and was not able to find them for an hour. Judging that 
 they would come in search of her, she stationed herself in a doorway 
 near the entrance to the grounds of the festival, and waited. 
 
 The crowd had partially dispersed when two gentlemen passed her. 
 One of them glanced back over his shoulder when at a little distance, 
 uttered an exclamation and hurriedly returned. It was Lajos, who 
 had sought for her for four days without success. He introduced his 
 companion, the lawyer Kisfaludy. Mutual explanations were made, 
 and Lajos secured for them all a more convenient coigne of vantage in 
 the window of a cobbler's shop. Here, where they could still keep a 
 lookout for her friends, Lajos left the lawyer in care of Margaret, while 
 he hurried away in search of the Judge. 
 
 " Before I go," he said, "let me give my aunt's message. She begs 
 that you will accept her apologies for — " 
 
 "None are necessary, Friend Lajos." 
 
 " It is like you to say so. We think differently. I owe you a 
 
VINTAGE FESTIVAL, VEVEY. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 large debt outside the moneyed one. We will talk it all over at any 
 time which will be convenient to you." And with a respectful bow, 
 he was gone. 
 
 The lawyer, a quizzical-appearing little man, regarded Margaret 
 with keen inquiry. She could not help thinking that he looked 
 exactly like a barrister in a play. He spoke excellent English, and 
 began at once to discuss the new situation. 
 
 " It is very fortunate for you, mademoiselle, 
 that the discovery of the existing relations 
 between yourself and the Baroness Du Fais 
 was made so exactly in the nick of time." 
 
 " How is that ? " Margaret asked. 
 
 " The will of your respected great-aunt," 
 explained the little man, " provided — and that 
 of the late Count Krajova made a similar pro- 
 vision — that if you preferred your claim as 
 heiress to the baroness's estate at any time 
 before the fifth of August of this year, one of 
 three results should ensue. Case first : should 
 a marriage be arranged between you and the 
 Count Lajos, the estates of the late count and 
 baroness would pass to you both jointly." 
 
 " That case is impossible," Margaret replied promptly. 
 
 " Exactly so. Now observe what follows. The estates pass in toto 
 from whichever party declines the marriage to the party consenting 
 thereto." 
 
 " Then," said Margaret, " I do not see that I am the gainer by this 
 will ; for I certainly decline this marriage." 
 
 " My dear young lady, I will imagine that I have not heard that 
 remark ; for it is so greatly detrimental to your own interests that it 
 should not be made without due deliberation." 
 
 " But nothing could induce me to marry the Count Lajos, much as 
 I esteem him as a friend." 
 
 KISFALUDY JANOS. 
 
2 34 
 
 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 " Very good. There will be no necessity for you to do so. The 
 Count Lajos has already declined to marry you. Your acknowledging 
 yourself ready to carry out the provisions of this clause will not 
 prejudice your future otherwise than to secure to yourself a valuable 
 estate." 
 
 " This is very astonishing," Margaret replied. " I must consult with 
 Livingston — with my grandfather, I mean — I must think it over." 
 
 " Exactly so. And, as I see the count approaching with a gentle : 
 man, we will drop the subject." 
 
 " I have found your party," said Lajos ; " and, at the same time, a 
 gentleman whom I have been in search of for some time. I have 
 heard a great deal of Mr. Livingston Walker, both from Miss New- 
 ton, and, latterly, from a friend of mine, who tells me that he showed 
 him our mines during my absence. I hope to have further conversa- 
 tion with you, sir, on the subject of mining engineering." 
 
 An appointment was made for a meeting on the following day, at 
 Glion ; and Margaret, quite dazed by what had happened, was escorted 
 by Mr. Walker to her carriage. 
 
 She said nothing to her betrothed, or to the Judge, in regard to 
 Mr. Kisfaludy's communication. It seemed to her, in spite of what 
 she had said, that this was a matter which she must decide for herself, 
 and that it could be decided honorably in only one way. She dreaded 
 her grandfather's legal sophistries ; for she knew that he would regret 
 her loss of the fortune, and would strive in every way to place it in 
 her possession. 
 
 Lajos and the lawyer arrived at the appointed time, and, leaving the 
 latter to explain the will to the Judge and to Mr. Walker, Margaret 
 asked Lajos to take a short walk with her in the grounds of the hotel. 
 
 " Kisfaludy Janos tells me that he has informed you of the peculiar 
 position in which we stand to each other," said Lajos. 
 
 " Yes," replied Margaret, " and I have no doubt that it seems as 
 absurd to you as it does to me." 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 235 
 
 "It does seem as if our loving relatives, while they had our best 
 interests at heart, muddled matters about as effectually as possible." 
 
 " But the solution is very simple. I refuse you, Lajos. You won't 
 mind it, I am sure, under the circumstances, and you are free and have 
 the fortune besides." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Margaret ; it is impossible for you to refuse 
 one who has never proposed for your hand." 
 
 Margaret flushed. " But you won't mind doing so when I assure 
 you beforehand that it is simply a matter of form, to secure your estates. 
 I pledge you my word that I will certainly decline your offer." 
 
 " I believe you, my friend ; but nevertheless I am not free to make 
 one. I am betrothed to Alice. It would be dishonorable for mei as her 
 promised husband, to propose for the hand of any other woman. 
 Therefore, Margaret, the mines are yours. I only ask that you will 
 try to perfect the reforms which I have instituted." 
 
 Margaret tapped her foot impatiently. " Don't you see that the 
 conditions are the same for both of us ? I cannot own the estate with- 
 out first stating that I am willing to marry you." 
 
 " And why not, since I have no desire to take advantage of that 
 admission. You cannot fear, Margaret, that you are being led into a 
 trap ? " 
 
 " Oh ! no, indeed ; I am quite convinced that nothing could induce 
 you to marry me, and it is very lovely of you. But then, you see, I 
 can't even pretend to consent to this marriage, for I am engaged to Mr. 
 Walker." 
 
 Each of the young people looked at each other in comical per- 
 plexity, and then burst into a merry peal of laughter. 
 
 " Here's a pretty state of things," Lajos remarked at last. " I don't 
 believe there ever existed just such another complication. We shall 
 haveto leave it to be settled by wiser heads than our own. Let us go 
 in and see what your grandfather and Kisfaludy Janos can make of it." 
 
 They found the others awaiting their coming with serious faces. 
 
236 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Mr. Walker in especial seemed ill pleased by the information which he 
 had just received. His face lightened, however, as Margaret announced : 
 u And Lajos and I wish it distinctly understood that under no circum- 
 stances whatever can we or could we marry each other, for we each of 
 us love some one else a thousand times more. And the old mines are- 
 of no consequence whatever." 
 
 " The question at issue then," said the lawyer, " is as to the priority 
 of this decision." 
 
 " I decided first," said Lajos promptly. " I decided that I cared 
 more for Alice than for any other good fortune, when I first met her 
 at Glion. The estate clearly belongs to Margaret." 
 
 " But I decided at the same time," said Margaret, " that, although 
 you are a very nice friend, Lajos, no fortune would induce me to marry 
 you. 
 
 "Children, cease your quarrelling," said the Judge; "we shall never 
 come to a conclusion in this way. Was there not a third clause in the 
 will, Mr. Janos ? " 
 
 " Kisfaludy," Lajos corrected. "Janos is his Christian name, John, 
 which we Hungarians write last." 
 
 " Absurd custom ! " growled the Judge. " Well, Mr. Kiss-the- 
 lady, — you have not read us the entire will, I believe." 
 
 " The third provision related to the possibility of .the heiress not 
 appearing before the fifth of August of this year. It reads as follows : — 
 
 " Copies of both of these wills shall be sent to Miss Margaret Du 
 Fais in the United States of America. And if the said Margaret Du 
 Fais shall decease before her coming of age, or shall not present her 
 claim, or it shall not be preferred by her legal representatives before 
 the fifth of August, 1889, then the party of the second part, Krajova 
 Lajos, shall be released from any obligations of' betrothal by us 
 entered into, and from the conditions of property settlement stated 
 in clauses first and second, but the original amount left by Margaret 
 Du Fais, Baroness, shall be rendered to her said grandniece, her heirs 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 237 
 
 or assigns, without interest, at any time after the said fifth of August, 
 1889, on which claim to the same shall be made." 
 
 " Strange, that we never received a copy of the wills, but that 
 certainly is the fairest thing all around," said the Judge. "It is now 
 the fifteenth of August, you will observe." 
 
 " Unfortunately," replied Kisfaludy, " information was received by 
 us as to the identity of Miss Du Fais with the proofs contained in 
 the confession of Annette Stauffer on the third of August." 
 
 " Information, true," exclaimed Margaret, " but no claim was pre- 
 ferred. / did not even authorize the sending of the information, and 
 the will expressly states that the claim must be preferred by me or 
 by my legal representatives. Clearly the circumstances fall under the 
 third clause." 
 
 " I believe you are right, young lady, and that it will be so decided 
 by our courts," remarked Kisfaludy. 
 
 " Then, Margaret," said Lajos, " we shall be equal owners of the 
 mines. In what form would you like to have your property rendered? " 
 
 " There will be time enough to settle that," said Kisfaludy, " after 
 the will is duly approved by law ; but that is an easy matter now." 
 
 And so the conference broke up, and in this way the knotty prob- 
 lem was at last settled. 
 
 Lajos urged them all to accept his aunt's invitation to visit at the 
 chateau until everything was settled, but the Judge and Margaret 
 were eager to return to America. It was finally agreed that Mr. 
 Walker should represent Margaret's interests as Lajos's partner and 
 superintendent of the mines, Margaret's funds not to be drawn from 
 the works, as Mr. Walker believed that they were well invested there, 
 and that with more progressive management might be made to yield 
 a handsome income for all concerned. 
 
 "I shall be glad of this," said Margaret, "for now I can educate 
 my protegees, and Nikolas can have the best surgical treatment." 
 
 " And our marriage need not be postponed to an indefinite future. 
 
238 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 I shall return to America next year to render an account of my 
 stewardship, and if my report is satisfactory shall claim my reward." 
 
 Thus ended the travels of the Three Vassar Girls in Switzerland. 
 
 From Glion Lajos, Mr. Kisfaludy, and Mr. Walker returned to 
 Hungary. The others crossed the lake to Geneva, from which point 
 they had begun their Swiss tours. 
 
 While here, and just before returning to America, it chanced that 
 the Judge and Margaret passed the shop where the Judge had pur- 
 chased his alpenstock, and had so confidently ordered it to be branded 
 with the names of the most celebrated Alpine peaks. " I shall have 
 the shaft sand-papered," said the Judge humbly; "for even before 
 the rival members of the New York Geographical Society I cannot 
 show quite the effrontery which is ascribed to an English mountaineer 
 by Henry Glassford Bell in his poem : — - 
 
 "MY ALPENSTOCK. 
 
 " Best of artists, mark for me 
 On my trusty alpenstock 
 All the . proper things, d'ye see ? 
 Every mountain, every rock. 
 
 "That when I go home therewith 
 
 Friends may know that I have been 
 Quite as high as Albert Smith, 
 Or balloon of Mr. Green. 
 
 " Mark it with the Rigi first ; 
 Some say that's an easy hill, 
 Yet I own the place accurst 
 Found me at the bottom still. 
 
 " Then the Brunig — mark it strong ; 
 Truth itself can't take offence. 
 All that height I came along, 
 Rattling in the diligence. 
 
THE FETE DES VIGNERONS. 
 
 " Mark it with the Jungfrau next — 
 Very few have ventured on her. 
 That I did not I am vext, 
 For I meant it, on my honor. 
 
 " From Martigny by Tete Noir 
 
 Or the Col de Balme they pace. 
 I said only au revoir, 
 
 When I saw the kind of place. 
 
 " Mark it lastly with Mont Blanc, 
 
 Though it made me gasp and quake 
 With a kind of mortal pang, 
 Just to view it from the lake. 
 
 " Thanks, my artist ! Now I go 
 Back to London with delight, 
 For my alpenstock will show 
 
 What becomes a man of might." 
 
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