England -- Fiction; Honeymoons -- Fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction
"I dare say. But you were lucky; I only managed to drop my tobacco-pouch
among the post-office bags, but our guilt is equal. The sooner we get
out of Caernarvon the better. By the way, don't let's catch the
six-o'clock train to nowhere in particular. Let's take a carriage and
drive to Llanberis and see the slate-quarries and go up Snowdon."
"Don't let's ever go into another prison," she said, blinking so that
the tears should drop off her eyelashes and not run down her face, "it
hurts so horribly, and we can't do any good."
"Not do any good?" he said. "Do you suppose that life can ever be the
same to a man to whom you've smiled and kissed your hand? Ah, I don't
mean it for empty gallantry, my dear. I mean that to know that you, free
and beautiful, care for them in their misery and imprisonment--don't you
think that's worth something?"
"If it is, I'm glad we went," said she.
Their departure for Llanberis, though sudden, was the less deplored by
the hotel management because of a regrettable misunderstanding which had
arisen during the afternoon between Charles and the house cat.
XVII
LLANBERIS
LLANBERIS, prim and small, and very, very Welsh, lies in the shadow of
great Snowdon, and all about it the lesser and more gracious
mountains--the mountains of green and purple and brown--stand with their
heads against the sky, bathing their feet in great lakes of smooth,
brown water. The inn has a beautiful and terraced garden; the stream
from the waterfall under Snowdon runs tumbling and gurgling down its
rocky bed. "The peace that is upon the lonely hills" may be yours at the
cost of a little breathless, happy climbing; the deeper peace of valleys
and lake may be yours for no more trouble than it takes to walk a couple
of hundred yards from the door of your inn. That the hotel was full did
not seem to matter--the other guests were off early, in breaks and
wagonettes, spending the long days in excursions from which they
returned late and hilarious, breaking the soft night quiet with loud
laughter and snatches of the kind of songs that nowadays delight the
great heart of the people. Trippers from Manchester and Liverpool came
for the day, but never strayed far from the inn, or, if they did, went
up Snowdon by the tiny railway. Everywhere, save on the way that led to
Snowdon, you were sure of quiet or peace, of a world where two could be
alone together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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