"What do you see in the rain?"
"Nothing whatever, at this minute; but a little while ago there was a kind of drawing aside of the thick curtain of falling snow, and I had a view of some terribly grand rocks, and one glimpse of a most wonderful distance."
"Vague distance?" said Philip, laughing. "That sounds like looking off into space."
"Well, it was. Like chaos, and order struggling out of its awful beginnings."
"Don't unpractically catch cold, while you are studying natural developement."
"I am perfectly warm. I think it is great fun to be kept here over night. Such a nice little place as it is, and such a nice little hostess. Do you notice how neat everything is? O Philip!—here is somebody else coming!"
"Coming to the inn?"
"Yes. O, I'm afraid so. Here's one of these original little carriages crawling along, and it has stopped, and the people are getting out. Poor storm-stayed people, like ourselves."
"They will come to a fire, which we didn't," said Philip, leaving his post now and placing himself at the back of Lois's chair, where he too could see what was going on in front of the house. A queer little vehicle had certainly stopped there, and somebody very much muffled had got out, and was now helping a second person to alight, which second person must be a woman; and she was followed by another woman, who alighted with less difficulty and less attention, though she had two or three things to carry.
"I pity women who travel in the Alps with their maids!" said Mr.
Dillwyn.