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THE ICE MAIDEN |
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Babette was quite delighted with this spot, which seemed to her the prettiest point of all their. journey, and she declared that they must land, for it must be charming there. But the steamer glided past, and was moored according to custom, at Vernex.
The little party wandered from here among the white sunny walls which surround the vineyards of Montreux, where the fig tree casts its shadow over the peasants' huts, and laurels and cypresses grow in the gardens. Half-way up the hill was situated the hotel in which the English lady was staying.
The reception was very hearty. The English lady was very friendly, with a round smiling face : in her childhood her head must have been like one of Raphael's angels ; but she had an old angel's head now, surrounded by curls of silvery white. The daughters were tall, slender, good-looking, lady-like girls. The young cousin whom they had brought with them was dressed in white from head to foot. He had yellow hair, and enough of yellow whisker to have been snared among three or four gentlemen. He immediately showed the very greatest attention to Babette.
Richly bound volumes, music-books, and drawings lay strewn about upon the large table; the balcony door stood open, and they could look out upon the beautiful far-spreading lake, which lay so shining and still that the mountains of Savoy, with their towns, forests, and snowy peaks, were most accurately reproduced on its surface.
Rudy, who was generally frank, cheerful, and ready, felt very uncomfortable here, and he moved as if he were walking on peas spread over a smooth surface. How long and wearisome the time seemed to him ! He could have fancied himself on a treadmill ! And now they even went out to walk together ; that was just as slow and wearisome as the rest. Rudy might have taken one step backward to every two he made forward, and yet have kept up with the others. They went down to Chillon, the old gloomy castle on the rocky island, to see the instruments of torture, the deadly dungeons, the rusty chains fastened to the walls, the stone benches on which men condemned to death had |
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