burst forth afresh with unmitigated violence. There was not much reading and writing done; and I thought that instead of descending again to the salle à manger I would extinguish the lights, rest on a sofa in front of the window, and watch the lightning.

I had dropped into a light uneasy sleep, the sleep of a man who is conscious that he has not undressed and gone to bed in the regular orthodox fashion, when I was awoke by hearing the rumbling of carriage-wheels, and then the carriage stopped at the inn-door. I struck a light and looked at my watch, and found that it was only half-past eleven o'clock. I thought that I might find some guests in the smoking-room, and might get some limonade gazeuse and a biscuit. When I descended I found that something a little like an altercation was going on in the hall. The new arrivals were demanding beds, and the landlord was protesting, with much eloquent gesticulation, that there were no beds to be had. Obviously it was to the landlord's interest to let his beds if he had any, and therefore his asseverations might be considered worthy of credit. Nevertheless they were received with what looked like incredulous despair. If they would only go on as far as Endeer, some seven or eight miles further, there was a good inn, and he knew for certain that the place was quite empty that morning. Still there was the doubt, and the horses were dead beaten and the travellers were very tired.

'And my daughter is not at all well,' he continued to the English-speaking, the polyglot landlord.

'She is away for her health, and a night of exposure on the mountains might be the worst thing possible for her.'

'O, never mind me, papa!' exclaimed a sweet voice from the

carriage. I am perfectly well, and could go on for ever so long.'

I knew the voice, I recognised the cloaked figure, I knew the party again-the party of the steamer and of the hotel.

'If monsieur-' said the landlord, giving me a glance, and for the first time realising my pre

sence.

I did not let him finish the sentence; but stepping forward with more moral courage than I possessed before, said,

'My room is quite unused; I have only been reading and writing. It is double-bedded; and, if the ladies will do me the honour of accepting it, it is quite at your

service.'

6

A hasty and resolute Thanks,' given from the head of the party. which drowned any hesitation on the part of the ladies, at once closed the matter in the affirmative. The gentleman thanked me very much, and expressed an opinion, in which I thoroughly coincided, that he had seen me somewhere before.

I had my limonade gazeuse, and the ladies had some as well, while the chief had as hearty a meal as could be obtained under the circumstances. Then the two ladies and their maid withdrew to the room which I had relinquished for them. The courier and coachman disposed of themselves in those mysterious ways in which couriers and coachmen can contrive to manage at times. Mr. Grinnell and myself remained in conversation some time. He talked affably, indeed, as should be the case when I had rendered him a favour; but, at the same time, I was afraid that he hardly had the good taste really to like me. They had come that morning from St. Bernardino, having made the long divergent journey to see the source of the Rhine, that wellknown gray torrent that bursts

from its glacier and plunges into its gorge. On their way back to the village of Hinterrhein, the storm burst forth; but, as the accommodation was very limited, and what seemed a prosperous lull had set in, they thought they would push on the dozen miles to Splügen. They were going on to Thusis, and thence to the Engadine. He had a very favourable opinion of the Engadine. All the doctors spoke well of it, and one or two friends of his own had derived decided benefit. His daughter's health was not good. She had been very sad and depressed since the death of her only brother, and the physicians thought that travel might do her good, and especially a sojourn in the bracing air of the Engadine. Then we had a discussion of the comparative advantages of Davos and the Engadine. We admitted that Davos had a wonderful winter climate for so great an altitude, and that it probably escaped the Italian vapours that sometimes rolled over the Engadine; but, at the same time, when once we were acclimatised to the Engadine, it was to be hoped that great things might be done for those who were in want of great things. And now the mollia tempora fandi were exhausted, and we were shown into a small salon with two sofas, where a rough kind of bed was made up for each of us.

The next morning the waiter put all our breakfasts together on a table fronting the window, a most deserving waiter, whom I tipped beyond my small means when I went away. It seemed quite a natural arrangement, which was adopted on all sides without demur. I voted it a great improvement upon the past state of things. It was a brilliant morning, the air being freshened and purified, and the snow-crowned heights seemed brought very near

in the pellucid atmosphere. almost regretted that I had made up my mind to cross the Splügen and descend upon the Italian plains and lakes; but then I bethought myself that I could return by the Maiola Pass to the Engadine, where I should doubtless find the Grinnells at St. Moritz or somewhere else in the valley, if I quickened my steps and did not linger too long upon the road.

The ladies thanked me very heartily for the room, more so, indeed, than old Grinnell seemed to think at all necessary.

'Do you know you left some books there, Mr.-' and here Miss Grinnell hesitated.

Fortescue, Eustace Fortescue.' 'They were not the books one generally finds-Bradshaw, Ball, Bædeker.'

'No,' I exclaimed, with a laugh; 'but some other busy B's,-Butler, Bacon, Browning.'

'The alliteration is very curious, but I was awake very early and looked into all three of the volumes.'

'And what do you make of them, Miss Grinnell ?'

'Well, I knew something of Browning before, and of course a great deal of Mrs. Browning. But I honestly confess that I knew nothing about Bacon and Butler, and I thought that they would be in immense folios, and not in such neat little handy books as you have.'

'Well, Bacon is an immense writer, and that little book only contains a small portion of his writings, and perhaps his best part; but the octavo volume contains all Butler, which is not so very much after all.'

'I wish I knew all about them, said Maud.

'And what makes you carry such dry books about with you?' asked Mrs. Grinnell.

'As for me,' said Mr. Grinnell,

'I shall eat a bit of Bacon, and I shall ring the bell for the Butler to bring me up a small bottle of light wine.'

Then I made answer to Mrs. Grinnell:

'I carry the books about because I was just reading them when I left the University. They pack so much thought in such little compass. When I tire of my own thoughts I turn to them, and they are authors which I find very helpful in understanding the meaning of Nature.'

Old Grinnell looked rather comic.

'But they are very old fellows. They are all exploded now. The French and German fellows have got the pull now,' said he.

'Not at all,' I said. 'The modern French philosophy, Comte's Positive philosophy, is pretty well constructed out of Bacon's system.'

Old Grinnell declined to pursue the conversation, at least on these lines, any further.

'O, I know something about that,' exclaimed Maud. 'I attend ed some lectures at a ladies' college, and a man came who lectured about Comte and Herbert Spencer and several other men. But I am afraid that I have forgotten. But I don't know anything about Butler.'

'Butler be blowed!' muttered old Grinnell sotto voce.

'Butler's not at all hard,' I said. 'There was an Oxford man who was in for his examination for Greats, and Butler was one of the subjects. The man to be examined was clever enough, and knew his other subjects well; but he had totally neglected his Butler, and had every reason to expect being plucked. In his despair he went to his tutor, Professor Jowett. "Have you got half an hour to spare?" asked Jowett. "I have just half an hour before I have to go into the schools

HOLIDAY, '80.

again," said the man. "Now listen to me," said Jowett; "all Butler's reasoning can really be reduced to four governing ideas. If you can master Butler's four ideas, you can answer any paper that any examiner can set you on Butler." The man went in, and, as the University legend goes, cleared the paper.'

'O, tell me all about Butler's four ideas! I have got more than half an hour before the carriage starts.'

I knew the young lady very little; but then I knew my Butler, although, perhaps, I ought not to say so, extremely well. To the great amusement of the father and mother I proceeded to indoctrinate her with the Butlerian ideas in Nature and theology, and added the corollary that this wonderful Swiss scenery was really a revelation of the mind of Deity. As, however, I question whether my readers would be equally tolerant of such difficult speculations, I will omit my little lecture, only assuring them that such philosophy, when discussed with a bright intelligent girl of nineteen, is not only 'harsh and crabbed,

But musical as is Apollo's lute.' For the nonce I was an Abelard instructing an Eloisa. But ere the four ideas were thoroughly discussed, the carriage was at the door to bear them downhill through the Via Mala to Thusis and the Engadine; and I had to scale the icy forlorn heights of the Splügen, and then descend the zigzag path cut in the perpendicular sides of the mountain. If I had taught Maud a lesson in philosophy, she had also taught me some lessons in love.

In about ten days' time I made my way back from Chiavenna through the Maloia Pass to Samâden into the Upper Engadine. There was a secret loadstone which thus

E