, and on looking over the visitors' book
she gave a cry. 'Ah, if we had only known! It is all of no use.'

'How?' she was asked.

'That horrid Mrs. Bury!'

'There?'

'Of course she is. Only a week ago she was here. If she is at Ratzes,
of course we can do nothing.'

'And the road is _affreux_, perfectly frightful,' said Mademoiselle. 'I
have been inquiring about it. No access except upon mules. A whole
day's journey--and the hotel! Bah, it is _vilain_!'

'If Ida is bent on going she must go without me,' said Mrs. Morton.
'I--I have had enough of those horrid beasts. Ida's nonsense will be the
death of me.'

'I don't see much good in going on with that woman there,' said Ida
gloomily. 'She would be sure to stifle all inquiry.'

'A good thing too,' muttered poor, weary Mrs. Morton.

Ida turned the leaves of the visitors' book till she found the names of
Lord and Lady Northmoor, and then, growing more eager as obstructions
came in her way, and not liking to turn back as if on a fool's errand,
she suggested to Miss Gattoni that questions might be asked about their
visit. The Tyrolean patois was far beyond her, and not too
comprehensible to her friend, but there was a waiter who could speak
French, and the landlady's German was tolerable.

The milord and miladi were perfectly remembered, as well as their long
detention, but the return had been by way of Italy, so they had not
revisited Botzen with their child the next spring.

'But,' said the hostess, 'there is a young woman in the next street who
can tell you more than I. She offered herself as a nurse.'

This person was at once sent for. She was the same who had been
mentioned by Mrs. Bury, but she had exchanged the peasant costume, which
had, perhaps, only been assumed to please the English ladies, for the
townswoman's universal endeavour at French fashion, which by no means
enhanced her rather coarse beauty, which was more Italian than Austrian.

Italian was the tongue which chiefly served as a medium between her and
Miss Gattoni, though hers was not pure enough to be easily understood.
Mrs. Morton and Ida put questions which Miss Gattoni translated as best
she could, and made out as much as possible of the answers. It was
elicited that she had not been allowed to see the English miladi. All
had been settled by the signora who came yearly, and they had rejected
her after all her trouble; the doctor had recommended her, and though her
_creat