ens, man, are you insane?" Rowland cried.

"I never have been saner. I don't want to be bad company, and in this
beautiful spot, at this delightful hour, it seems an outrage to break
the charm. But I am bidding farewell to Italy, to beauty, to honor, to
life! I only want to assure you that I know what I lose. I know it in
every pulse of my heart! Here, where these things are all loveliest, I
take leave of them. Farewell, farewell!"

During their passage of the Saint Gothard, Roderick absented himself
much of the time from the carriage, and rambled far in advance, along
the huge zigzags of the road. He displayed an extraordinary activity;
his light weight and slender figure made him an excellent pedestrian,
and his friends frequently saw him skirting the edge of plunging chasms,
loosening the stones on long, steep slopes, or lifting himself against
the sky, from the top of rocky pinnacles. Mary Garland walked a great
deal, but she remained near the carriage to be with Mrs. Hudson. Rowland
remained near it to be with Miss Garland. He trudged by her side up that
magnificent ascent from Italy, and found himself regretting that the
Alps were so low, and that their trudging was not to last a week. She
was exhilarated; she liked to walk; in the way of mountains, until
within the last few weeks, she had seen nothing greater than Mount
Holyoke, and she found that the Alps amply justified their reputation.
Rowland knew that she loved nature, but he was struck afresh with the
vivacity of her observation of it, and with her knowledge of plants and
stones. At that season the wild flowers had mostly departed, but a few
of them lingered, and Miss Garland never failed to espy them in their
outlying corners. They interested her greatly; she was charmed when
they were old friends, and charmed even more when they were new. She
displayed a very light foot in going in quest of them, and had soon
covered the front seat of the carriage with a tangle of strange
vegetation. Rowland of course was alert in her service, and he gathered
for her several botanical specimens which at first seemed inaccessible.
One of these, indeed, had at first appeared easier of capture than his
attempt attested, and he had paused a moment at the base of the little
peak on which it grew, measuring the risk of farther pursuit. Suddenly,
as he stood there, he remembered Roderick's defiance of danger and of
Miss Light, at the Coliseum, and he was seized with a strong de