This proved to be no very easy achievement; but after a good deal of climbing, Mona's ambition was realised. Then they scrambled down to watch the water surging out from under the deep blue arches; and at last, tired and dishevelled, they betook themselves to the inn. "I hope you are as hungry as I am," he said, with the old boyish manner, "and I hope we shall find something we can eat." The "shanty" was clean and airy, with well-scoured floors, but the remains of lunch on the table certainly did not look very inviting,--a few transparent slices of Gruyère cheese, which seemed to have been all holes, some uninteresting-looking biscuits, and doubtful sausage. "Have you coffee and eggs?" asked the Sahib. "Ah--that will do, won't it?" "Coffee and eggs are food for the gods," said Mona. "Or would be, if they did not spoil their appetites with nectar and ambrosia," he corrected; and they laughed and talked over the impromptu meal like a couple of children. "How many ladies are there studying medicine just now?" asked the Sahib as they walked slowly homewards. "Women? I don't quite know. About a hundred in the country, I should think." "And what do the--I am afraid I had almost said the stronger sex--say to this infringement of their imagined rights?" Mona looked at his stalwart, athletic figure. "Pray don't apologise for calling them the stronger sex to me," she said, laughing. "I am not at all disposed to try my strength against yours. Oh, of course there was immense opposition at first. That is matter of history now. But it would be difficult to exaggerate the kindness and helpfulness of most of the younger men; and a few of the older ones have been heroes all along." "That is a 'good hearing.' Then do you think it could all have been managed without opposition, by dint of a little waiting?" "_That_ I don't!" she answered warmly. "The first women, who were determined not merely to creep in themselves but to open up the way for others, must have suffered obloquy and persecution from all but the very few, at any time. If the lives of a little band of women--I had almost said if the life of _one_ woman--could be blotted out, I wonder how many of us would have the courage to stand where we now do? It is a pretty and a wonderful sight, perhaps, to see a band of young girls treading the uphill path and singing as they go. 'How easy it is,' they say, 'and how sweet we make it with our flowers!' No doubt they do, and heaven bless them for it! But it has always seemed to me that the bit of eternal work was the making of the road." She spoke with so much earnestness that the Sahib was almost uneasy. "That is more than true," he said warmly. "It is the working of a universal principle. You know," he added shyly, "if you were, going to take to a public life, I wonder you did not think of the platform."