sy?"

"That French creature--she tried to talk to my big Englishman, but he
snubbed her. What a fine chap he must be! I knew he had a title, and
I'm just dying to meet him. Do you suppose he'll stay at our hotel? If
he does, I'll find somebody who knows all about him. Now I understand
why so many American girls marry titled Englishmen. If they're all as
nice as this one, I don't blame them, do you?"

"Hush, child, hush!" her mother reproved. "How can you run on so about
a total stranger?"

But the girl merely smiled softly to herself in answer, as she watched
Paul's straight back receding down the platform.

Overwhelmed with a rush of memories, Paul climbed into the carriage.
It was a fine afternoon, but he did not see the giant mountains
rearing their heads for him as proudly in the sunshine as ever they
had held them since the world was new.

For Paul just now was lost in the infinite stretches of the past,
those immeasurable fields through which the young wander blithely, all
unconscious of aught but the beautiful flowers so ruthlessly trampled
on, the luscious fruits so wantonly plucked, the limpid streams drunk
from so greedily, and the cool shades in which to sink into untroubled
sleep.

Ah! if there were no awakening! If one were always young!

The _fiacre_ stopped; and soon Paul found himself in the hall of the
hotel, surrounded by officious porters. The _maitre d'hotel_ himself,
a white-haired Swiss, pushed through them and greeted him, for was not
Sir Paul an old and distinguished guest, who never failed to honour
him with his patronage each year? Himself, he showed Paul to the same
suite he always occupied, and with zealous care conferred with milord
over the momentous question of dinner, a matter not to be lightly
discussed.

"And the wine? Ah! the _Tokayi Imperial_, of a certainty. Absolutely,
Monsieur, we refuse to serve it to anyone but yourself. Only last week
it was, when a waiter who would have set it before some rich
Americans--but that is over, he is here no longer."

Paul smiled indulgently at the solicitous little man. It was good to
be here again, talking with Monsieur Jacques as in the old days.

"One moment, more, Monsieur, before I go. Is it that Monsieur desires
the same arrangements to be made again this year--the visit to the
little village on the lake, the climb up the Buergenstock, the
pilgrimage to the Swiss farmhouse? Yes? Assuredly, Monsieur, it shall
be done, _tout de suit