Children of clergy -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Mountaineering -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
And she had her wish. After some fifteen or twenty minutes of slow
progress, she caught sight of a small red-brown châlet, somewhat above
the path. In front of it, side by side, two figures were seated,—a man
and a girl—deep in talk.
She drew instantly back out of sight. They had not noticed her, and
they should not!
"So—that is it!" she ejaculated. And again—"Really, how deceitful!
One would have thought they knew better. Above all things, I do detest
underhand ways." She felt that, for the unearthing of such a
conspiracy, any methods were admissible.
The dear young doctor had become many degrees less delightful, though
she was disposed to lay chief blame on Doris.
When the girl rejoined her an hour later, she asked no questions, made
no remarks. But next morning, having risen with unusual promptitude,
she was the first to vanish, making her way briskly to the small
châlet.
Did they always come here? Was it a daily trysting-place? If not,
her trouble might be thrown away. If they did come — she hardly knew
what she would do. Her first idea was to seat herself on the farther
side of the châlet, where she would be hidden as they approached, and
then casually to walk out on them. But as she debated, she noticed the
châlet-door to be ajar; and she went in.
Rough flooring under her feet; rough beams overhead; some upright
beams also, supporting the roof; and at one side what she took for a
manger. That was all. Not a bad place in which to sit, and quietly to
hear what might go on outside. This thought came; and she put the door
quickly to. She had not quite made up her mind; but she dwelt upon the
possibility. And if a little voice whispered the words which she had
been using about others,—"deceitful," and "underhand,"—she put them
aside. Doris was in her charge, and surely it was her duty to find out
what the girl was after.
Voices sounded, drawing near. Too late now for the other plan. She
could wait here, however, just for a minute—and then make her presence
known. She moved softly close to the wall, on the other side of which
they would sit, if they did not pass on.
And they did not. It was a lovely spot. They believed themselves to be
alone, beyond sight and hearing of all other human beings.
Thirty or forty yards below lay a fringe of shrubs and low trees; and
the Rhone valley beyond was nearly hidden. Just in front stood boldly
forth the great sweep of rocky heights, hard and grey, jagged and
seamed. Lines of strata might there be studied, upright and
horizontal, curved and twisted, telling of long-past pressure and
moulding, perhaps also of great cataclysmic upheavals, in the shaping
of these mountains. The vast rock-range, one of Nature's "out crops,"
rose high above softer grass-green alps, dotted with hay-châlets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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