y embarrassed by all these grand
doings in a public room, though I was very grateful for the friendly
feelings of those who arranged the affair."

The snow came late, but during the winter it lay deep and heavy on the
ground, making the roads almost impassable and their isolation more
complete. Both husband and wife began to feel an almost uncontrollable
depression amid these bleak surroundings, aggravated as they were by
many deaths among the patients. As spring approached Mrs. Stevenson
wrote:

"Louis is not very well and not very ill. Spring, I think, sits upon
him, and so also all these deaths and Bertie's[19] illness. As soon as
he is a little stronger the doctor is going to send him to some place
in the neighborhood for a change."

[Footnote 19: The son of Mrs. Sitwell, now Lady Colvin.]

And she, to whom warmth and colour were a very part of her nature, was
an exotic, a lost tropic bird, in these icy mountains. In a letter to
her mother-in-law her heart cried out: "I cannot deny that living here
is like living in a well of desolation. Sometimes I feel quite frantic
to look out somewhere, and almost as though I should suffocate. But
may Davos forgive me! It has done so much for Louis that I am ashamed
to say anything against it."

In the latter part of April their discontent went beyond endurance,
and, believing his health now sufficiently improved to warrant the
risk, they turned their steps once more towards their beloved France,
where they spent a month between Barbizon, St. Germain, and Paris.

In Paris their haunting Nemesis gave them a little breathing spell,
and when Louis's strength permitted, they wandered about the streets
in their own careless, irresponsible fashion, having a delightful time
poking into all sorts of strange places, in one of which he insisted
on spending practically his last _sou_ for an antique watch for which
she had expressed admiration. "Now we'll starve," said she, but after
reaching home he happened to put his hand in the pocket of an old coat
and drew out an uncashed cheque which had been forgotten. One day when
out alone she went into a dismal-looking pawn-shop in a part of the
city that was not considered exactly safe. She was puzzled by the
evident superiority of the proprietor to his surroundings, and when he
invited her to follow him, she went without hesitation back through
winding passages until they stepped out into a beautiful garden, where
sat a cha