The Amazing Marriage, v1

table in the ravaged dwelling, with the exception of a sly store for the midday meal, that old Mariandl had stuffed into Chillon's leather sack-the fruit of secret begging on the

a cup with your mother,' she said to Carinthia, 'you will find one pinch of it in your bag

ne day or other. The old soul moaned of eyes that would not be awake to behold her; she begged a visit at her grave, though it was to be in a Catholic burial-place and the priests had used her dear master and mistress

nces of Austria. Josef, the cart-driver with the boxes, who was to pass the valley, vowed of his own accord to hang a fresh day's wreath on the rails. He would not hear of money for the purchase, and they humoured him. The family had been beloved. There was an offer of a home for Carinthia in the

nness, leaving her to question herself whether she existed, for more of life seemed to be with their mystery than with her speculations. The phantom ring of mist enclosing for miles the invariable low-sweeping dark spruce-fir kept her thoughts on them as close as the shroud. She walked fast, but scarcely felt that she was moving. Near midday the haunted circle widened; rocks were loosely folded in it, and heads of trees, whose round intervolving roots grasped the yellow roadside soil; the mists shook like a curtain

he lesser mountains on their side of the pass, she asked questions relating to England, and especially the ladies she was to see at the Baths beyond the glacier- pass. She had heard of a party of his friends awaiting him there, without much encouragement f

erman: 'Poor soul!' Whi

id, in the tone i

widow was used to it, for th

again!' excla

ike that ide

trayed a del

essive present tense. 'And marries again!'

d she, as at t

et's hope,'

of the lady, and her look at her br

the seat, and here he relieved the bag of a bottle of wine, slices of, meat, bread, hard eggs, and lettuce, a chipped cup to fling away after drinking the wine, and a supply of small butler-cakes know

broke his heart. He sprang forward, he stopped and threw up his head. It was human language to hear him, Chillon. He lay in the yard, trying to lift his eyes when I came to him, they were so heavy; and he had not strength to move his poor old tail more than once. He died with his head on my lap. He seemed to beg me, and I took him, and he breathed twice, and that was his end. Pluto! old

d to her brother. He

There 's nothing like good hard walking to give common w

arinthia replied, after

not grow wine. Are th

ilized peopl

m to you,

inter's warm on skates. You must do a great deal for yourself. T

e not l

e, and food enough, we'll hope. You

loved. I do not care for compa

e-he's mother's brother; but where

e present, my dear, till

l,' sh

t brightened by the alternative of her brother's having t

ses into Italy. Father bought the land, thinking there would be a yield of ore thereabout; and they have seized it, rightly enough, but they dispute ou

ed with him to show t

lse except a bit t

a burden on my brother?'

essing to a husband

ite of their meal, as if it had been a ceremony demanded from traveller

lphur pushed up, straight, forked, twisted, naked, striking their minds with an indeterminate ghostliness of Indian, so strange they were in shape and colouring. These sharp points were the first to greet them between the blue and green. A depression of the pass to the left gave sight of the points of black fir forest below, round the girths of the barren shafts.

as I did with father, C

ing beyond present vision, and to sanctify it for her brother,

he upper pastures, and still dense enough to be

nd the head was lost, the tail spread peacockwise, and evaporated slowly in that likeness; and sof

before her, Carinthia remembered the current saying, that he should have been the girl and she the boy. Th

ountain-like energy of stature, delightful to her contemplation. And he had the mouth women put faith in for decision and f

not choosing to revert to an u

grandly fringed, could still remind Carinthia of the event it was of old to spy and chase one. Chillon himself was not above the sentiment of their "very early days"; he stopped to ask if she had been that lustrous blue-wing, a rarer species, prized by youngsters, shoot through the chestnut trees: and they both paused for a moment, gazin

im at night to stalk the blackcock in the prime of the morning. She wished they could have had another

-river, walking side by side with him, she ventured an

me dark also,

est-lookin

they are,

r was

e w

of them, once at Vies

ing to; and at

dered them

t a

the spring, and handed it to her, saying: 'There is one.' He spoke indifferently, but as soon as she had seen the face inside i

to him, saying hush

creased, and she hastened her steps beside him. She had not much to

the ladies we

o get to the Baths without delay; and her heart softened in reflectin

for the remainder of the distance up the valley to the barrier snow-mountain. She assented instantly, she had no longer any active wish

now and them stupidly jolting her on, after the valiant exercise of her limbs. They were in a land of waterfalls and busy mills, a narrowing vale where the runs of grass grew

dly, end she looked at him without springing to him, and continued imaging her English home and her loveless uncle, merely admiring the scene, as if the f

e a dream? He came and went. Her mother, not unkindly, sadly, had counted her poor girl's chances of winning attention and a husband. Her father had doated on her face; but, as she argued, her father had been attracted by her mother, a beautiful woman, and this was a circumstance that reflected the greater hopelessness on her prospects. She bore a likeness to her father, little to her mother, t

tted to follow armie

t. 'What 's i

ey were good walkers to march with the army; and, as evidently it sounded witless to him,

regoing and the succeeding in her remarks, but answe

the name of the person disturbing her; it fused best, she thought, with the new

have them serve as army

Chi

explain it,

o too, when you g

unable to claim the privilege. That was her meaning, involved with the hazy project of earning an independence; but she could not ex

tongue. Her humble and modest jealousy, scarce deserving the title, p

tta, soared above her and sang the music of the splendid spheres. Henrietta was closer to earth, for her features had been revealed; she was therefore the dearer, and the richer fo

now that she had mastered a new element in it, soon restored her to her sisterly affinity with natural glories. The sunset was on yonder side of the snows. Here there was a feast of variously-tinted sunset s

om a world in arms; and also, it might be mentioned, to bring him fortune. 'For I must have money!' he said, sighing it out like a deliberate oath. He and his uncle were associated in the inventions. They had an improved rocket that would force military chiefs to change their tactics: they had a new pow

m be sure his uncle divided the profits equally

her to say: 'He

e answere

she

, you sh

he br

, till she ha

e quit

ot yet bee

there no one

anxious to bestow

is r

wealthiest in Great

he y

e same ag

handsome

an your broth

your Henrietta does not choose him? Now let me th

e on her heart and went t

xt morning, in the steps of a guide carrying, Chillon said

, for this one of the names he had used to give to her o