"You have apparently not desired to do so. The tutor will gain nothing from this spoiled child--the lover everything."
Gerald bit his lips; he felt the justice of this reproach, but he also felt a touch of Edith's irritability when she was reproved. Now it was his turn, and he could not even find a fitting answer.
As they approached the summit of the mountain the road began to ascend in steeper curves. Danira rode close to the edge; though her mule had just shown its untrustworthiness, she seemed perfectly fearless. Gerald could not help noticing how steadily the animal now trod upon the loose stones, and how firmly the slender hand held the bridle; she evidently had perfect control of the beast, so the incident appeared all the more incomprehensible.
They had just reached a broader, rocky projection, when Danira suddenly drew rein and bent down to her saddle.
"Has anything happened?" asked Gerald, whose attention was attracted.
"Nothing of any importance. Something about the saddle must have been disarranged by the mule's sudden jump. I did not notice it until now."
The young officer instantly stopped and dismounted, but his companion swung herself out of the saddle so quickly that she was already standing on the ground when he approached. He saw that she wished to avoid his assistance, and therefore, without a word, instantly turned to the animal. The damage was trifling; the saddle-girth had loosened. Gerald tightened it again, and then straightening himself, said:
"I think we will let the mules rest a little. They have had a sharp climb, and the fort is still some distance off."
He knotted the bridles loosely together, and then stepped out upon the point, where Danira was already standing, gazing into the distance.
The landscape they beheld was both magnificent and peculiar, a picture whose wide frame contained the most abrupt contrasts. Desolate rocky wastes, and green, smiling shores, white hamlets glimmering in the brightest sunshine, and gloomy ravines where scarcely a ray of light penetrated, the luxuriance of the south and the rude solitude of the north, but all lay as if transfigured in the clear, golden radiance of the morning.