pleased smile.

"I heard Antoine say to Gillie, the other day, that his wife washed a
large portion of the hotel linen. No doubt some of ours is amongst it.
Indeed I am sure of it," he added, with a look of quiet gravity, as
Madame Grennon seized another article, swished it through the water,
caused it to resound on the plank, and scrubbed it powerfully with soap;
"that a what's-'is-name, belongs to me. I know it by the cut of its
collar. Formerly, I used to know it chiefly by its fair and fragile
texture. I shall know it hereafter as an amazing illustration of the
truth of the proverb, that no one knows what he can stand till he is
tried. The blows which she is at present delivering to it with her
mallet, are fast driving all preconceived notions in regard to linen out
of my head. Scrubbing it, as she does now, with a hard brush, against
the asperities of the rough plank, and then twisting it up like a
roly-poly prior to swishing it through the water a second time, would
once have induced me to doubt the strength of delicate mother-of-pearl
buttons and fine white thread. I shall doubt no longer."

As he said so, Madame Grennon chanced to look up, and caught sight of
the strangers. She rose at once, and, forsaking her tub, advanced to
meet them, the curly-haired daughter following close at her heels, for,
wherever her mother went she followed, and whatever her mother did she
imitated.

The object of the visit was soon explained, and the good woman led the
visitors into her hut where Baptist Le Croix chanced to be at the time.

There was something very striking in the appearance of this man. He was
a tall fine-looking fellow, a little past the prime of life, but with a
frame whose great muscular power was in no degree abated. His face was
grave, good-natured, and deeply sunburnt; but there was a peculiarly
anxious look about the eyes, and a restless motion in them, as if he
were constantly searching for something which he could not find.

He willingly undertook to conduct his friend's wife and child to the
residence of their relative.

On leaving the hut to return to Chamouni, Madame Grennon accompanied her
visitors a short way, and Nita took occasion, while expressing
admiration of Baptist's appearance, to comment on his curiously anxious
look.

"Ah! Mademoiselle," said Madame, with a half sad look, "the poor man is
taken up with a strange notion--some people call it a delusion--that
gold is to be fou