"My hair had been cut short when I was ill. That made me feel as if the thing really was to be. One day I sent out and bought some--some clothes, ready made, and put them on. That settled it, for I was sure no one would ever know me, or the truth. One thing suggested another. I thought of travelling with a caravan--then I changed my mind to donkeys, and that led to Innocentina. I'd gone out with her up into the mountains, donkey-back, every day from Mentone two years ago. She had talked to me about Aosta. Her mother's people came from there. Always since, I had wanted to go. I wrote her. I began to make preparations for a long journey." "You got the bag!" I exclaimed. "Oh, that bag! I should have _died_ if any English-speaking person had found it, and read my diary, which was to be used--partly--as notes for a book--if I should ever write it. I would have offered even a bigger reward, if you had let me. But I must go on:--they will come--Molly and Jack. I went out to Lucerne, where Innocentina joined me with the donkeys; but it wasn't till we were away in the wilds that--that the Boy appeared. I didn't mean to visit any very big towns afterwards, for it wasn't civilisation I wanted; but--you came into the story, and I did lots of things I hadn't meant to do--because of you, Man." "And I did lots of things I hadn't meant to do--because of you, Boy." "It was doing different things from what I planned that worked all the mischief. If we hadn't gone to Aix, we wouldn't have gone up Mont Revard; and if we hadn't gone up Mont Revard, the Prince wouldn't have had to vanish." "If he hadn't, would the Princess have appeared--for me? Or would she always have been passing--passing--I not dreaming of her presence, though she was by my side?" "Who can tell? Each event in life seems to be propped up against all the others, like a tower of children's bricks. Anyway, we did go, and Something had sent up to the snowy top of that mountain in Savoie the very last man in the world--except one--I would have chosen to meet. It was--_his_ brother--the younger brother of the man I had found out. He wasn't sure of me, I could tell: for he had never seen me with my hair short; and I had got so thin, and my face so brown; but he suspected, and he is a gossiping sort of fellow. If he had had a chance to see me by daylight, he would have been sure, and then there would be some wild story flashing all over America. That is why I ran away. But it hurt me to leave you like that, Man." "It cut off all my arms and legs, and my head, and left me only a trunk," I murmured.