at Tartarin did not perceive, having already stooped to feel
about the short and crackling grass around them.

"_Te, pardi!_ here it is!" he cried joyfully. He shook the dainty shoe
which the snow had powdered, and putting a knee to earth, most gallantly
in the snow and the dampness, he asked, for all reward, the honour of
replacing it on Cinderella's foot.

She, more repellent than in the tale, replied with a very curt "no;" and
endeavoured, by hopping on one foot, to reinstate her silk stocking
in its little bronze shoe; but in that she could never have succeeded
without the help of the hero, who was greatly moved by feeling for an
instant that delicate hand upon his shoulder.

"You have good eyes," she said, by way of thanks as they now walked side
by side, and feeling their way.

"The habit of watching for game, mademoiselle."

"Ah! you are a sportsman?"

She said it with an incredulous, satirical, accent Tartarin had only
to name himself in order to convince her, but, like the bearers of all
illustrious names, he preferred discretion, coquetry. So, wishing to
graduate the surprise, he answered:--

"I am a sportsman, _effectivemain_."

She continued in the same tone of irony:--

"And what game do you prefer to hunt?"

"The great carnivora, wild beasts..." uttered Tartarin, thinking to
dazzle her.

"Do you find many on the Rigi?"

Always gallant, and ready in reply, Tartarin was about to say that
on the Rigi he had so far met none but gazelles, when his answer was
suddenly cut short by the appearance of two shadows, who called out:--

"Sonia!.. Sonia!.."

"I'm coming," she said, and turning to Tartarin, whose eyes, now
accustomed to the darkness, could distinguish her pale and pretty face
beneath her mantle, she added, this time seriously:--

"You have undertaken a dangerous enterprise, my good man... take care
you do not leave your bones here."

So saying, she instantly disappeared in the darkness with her
companions.

Later, the threatening intonation that emphasized those words was fated
to trouble the imagination of the Southerner; but now, he was simply
vexed at the term "good man," cast upon his elderly embonpoint, and also
at the abrupt departure of the young girl just at the moment when he was
about to name himself, and enjoy her stupefaction.

He made a few steps in the direction the group had taken, hearing a
confused murmur, with coughs and sneezes, of the clustering tourists
waitin