dressed to her in his care in that country probably would
have reached her.

She was gone and there was an end; it was of no use to think more of
the matter. Still, he was sorry, because in that same letter his father
had alluded casually to the death of Lady Jane, which had caused Hawk's
Hall to be shut up for a while, and he would have liked to condole with
Isobel on her loss. He knew that she loved her mother dearly, and of
this gentle lady he himself had very affectionate remembrances, since
she had always been most kind to him. Yet for the reasons stated, he
never did so.

About a fortnight after the flower episode a chance came Godfrey's way
of making an Alp-climbing expedition in the company of some
mountaineers. They were friends of the Pasteur who joined the party
himself, but stayed in a village at the foot of the mountains they were
to climb, since for such exercise he had lost the taste. The first two
expeditions went off very successfully, Godfrey showing himself most
agile at the sport which suited his adventurous spirit and delighted
him. By nature, notwithstanding his dreamy characteristics, he was
fearless, at any rate where his personal safety was concerned, and
having a good head, it gave him pleasure to creep along the edge of
precipices, or up slippery ice slopes, cutting niches with an axe for
his feet.

Then came the third attempt, up a really difficult peak which had not
yet been conquered that year. The details of the expedition do not
matter, but the end of it was that at a particularly perilous place one
of the party lost his head or his breath and rolled from the path.

There he lay half senseless, on the brink of a gulf, with a drop of a
thousand feet or more beneath him. As it happened, they were climbing
in lots of three, each of which lots was roped together, but at some
distance between the parties, that with the guide being a good way
ahead.

Godfrey was leading his party along the track made by the other, but
their progress was not very rapid owing to the weakness of the man who
had fallen who, as it afterwards transpired, suffered from his heart,
and was affected by the altitude. The climber behind Godfrey was strong
and bold; also, as it chanced at the moment of the fall, this man's
feet were planted upon a lump of projecting rock, so firmly that by
throwing himself forward against the snow slope, grasping another lump
of rock with his left hand and bearing on to the alpens