ewhat uncertain. They might find him at the hotel when they returned,
going home in the evening quietness, when Monte Rosa would be flushed to
rose-pink and the blue sky would die off in splendours of rose and
orange.

Nelly was certainly looking better. Not a hint had come to her of the
frontier war in which, by this time, her lover must be engaged. The
General starved for his newspapers in these days, if he did not get the
chance of a surreptitious peep at one at the English library, or when
some friendly fellow-guest in the hotel would hand him a belated print
two days old. Nelly had a wild rose bloom in her cheek and a light in
her eye at this moment. Who could look upon such a scene and not praise
the Designer? Not Nelly, certainly. As they paused for the hundredth
time to look she breathed sighs of content and pressed her father's arm
close to hers in a caress. Even though one's lover had been cruel and
had gone away without speaking, it was good to be alive.

The appealing influence of the season was about them, too. They had just
peeped into a little wayside chapel, where there was a small altar
ablaze with lights set amid masses of flowers. The place was heavy with
sweetness. Here and there knelt worshippers with bent heads. The General
had bowed with a reverent knee, and Nelly had knelt with him before they
had gone out into the blaze of the day again.

"There are only two armies, after all, Nell," the General had said,
explaining himself. "The army of the Lord and the army of the Prince of
Darkness. Let us rejoice that we have so many fellow-soldiers in the
Lord's army, though we fight in different regiments."

"To-morrow," said Nelly dreamily, "the lights will be all out and the
little chapel draped in black. There will be the service of the Three
Hours' Agony. Do you think we might come?"

"I'm afraid the Dowager would be shocked," her father replied hastily.
"She would look upon it as deserting the flag. Many excellent women are
very narrow-minded."

They went along in silence. At intervals they sat down to enjoy at
leisure the beautiful world about them. They did not say much. There was
little need for talk between two who understood each other so
thoroughly. While they dawdled, half-way round the lake from their
hotel, the sun dropped behind the hills and left them in shadow. It was
time for them to go home.

As they went along leisurely, Nelly's face, uplifted towards the sky,
seemed to have cau