lest the same weakness should prove a snare and a ruin to him in the course of future life. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. A DAY OF WONDER. "Flowers are lovely. Love is flowerlike, Friendship is a sheltering tree; O the joys that came down showerlike With virtue, truth, and liberty, When I was young."--Coleridge. "To-morrow, then, we are all to ascend the Schilthorn," said Mr Kennedy, as he bade good-night to the merry party assembled in the salle a manger of the chalet inn at Murrem. "Or as high as we ladies can get," said Mrs Dudley. "Oh, we'll get you up, aunt," said Kennedy; "if Julian and my father and I can't get you and Miss Home and Eva up, we're not worth much." "To say nothing of _me_" said Cyril, putting his arms akimbo, with a look of immense importance. "Breakfast, then, at five to-morrow morning, young people," said Mr Kennedy, retiring; and full of happy anticipations they went off to bed. Punctually at five they were all seated round the breakfast-table, eagerly discussing the prospects of the day. "I say, _did_ any of you see the first sunbeam tip the Jungfrau this morning?" said Kennedy. "It looked like--like--what did it look like, Miss Home?" "Like the golden rim of a crown of pearls," said Violet, smiling. "And did you see the morning star, shining above the orange-coloured line of morning light, over the hills behind us, Eva? What did that remind you of?" "Oh, I can't _invent_ poetic similes," answered Eva. "I must take refuge in Wordsworth's-- "`Sweet as a star when only one Is shining in the sky.'" "Yes," said Julian; "or Browning's-- "`One star--the chrysolite!'" "Hum!" said Cyril, who had been standing impatiently at the door during the colloquy; "when you young ladies and people have done poetising, etcetera, the guide's quite ready." "Come along, then; we're soon equipped," said Violet, adjusting at the looking-glass her pretty straw hat, with its drooping feather, and the blue veil tied round it. "I say, Miss Kennedy--bother take it though, I can't always be saying Miss Kennedy--it's too long. I shall call you Eva--may I?" said Cyril. "By all means, if you like." "Well, then, Eva, the guide _is_ such a rum fellow; he looks like a revived mummy out of--out of Palmyra," said he, blundering a little in his geography. "Mummy or no," said Julian, "he'll carry all our provisions and plaids to-day up to the top, which is more than most of your A Cs would do." "A C--what does that mean?" asked Violet. "One sees it constantly in the visitors' books." "Don't you know, Vi?" said Cyril. "It stands for athletic climber." "Alpine Club, you little monkey," said Kennedy, throwing a fir-cone at him. "_You'll_ be qualified for the Alpine Club, Miss Home, before the day's over, I've no doubt." "No," said Julian, "they want 13,000 feet, I believe, and the Schilthorn is only 9,000." "Nearly three times higher than Snowdon; only fancy!" said Cyril.