"Please don't tell any one you found me in extremis," she went on; "it would be too great a disappointment to be obliged to give up my solitary walks."
"How can I tell any one what is not true?" he said, recovering himself. "I did not find you in extremis at all. I did not even know you were frightened till you laughed. You looked at me with such dignified self-assurance when I hove in sight that I was more than half inclined to lift my hat and pass on."
Mona laughed incredulously.
They trudged on for a time in silence. Once she looked up and found his eyes fixed on her face with an expression of amusement. "It is very odd," he said, finding himself caught.
"What is?"
"Oh, I don't know—the whole thing."
He broke into a quiet laugh, and Mona joined in it from sympathy. He was a curious creature this son of Anak, whose broad, glistening face gleamed at her so benevolently through the mist.
"Have you been long at Stalheim?" he asked.
"Only a few days."
"Is the hotel good?"