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Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un eeul clichA, 11 est filmA A partir de I'angle supArleur geuche, de gauche A droite, et dr. >aut en bas, en prenant Ie nombre d'Images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes sulvants lllustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hppletons' XTown ant) Country Xibrarp No. 194 THE MADONNA OF A DAY ^ THE MADONNA OF A DAY BY L. DOUGALL Cti.»UjL_ AUTHOR OF THE MERMAID, THE ZEIT-OEIST, BEGGARS ALL, ETC. "A water pure and saltless Has neither taste nor hue ; A beauty that is faultless Is characterless too. Blest are the discontented ! " NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1895 .^ L T7 •' v) • •-' CoPTRionT, 1895, Bt d. appleton and company. THE MADONNA OF A DAY. CHAPTER I. The station of tlie Canadian Pacific Railway in the town of Vancouver is a rather handsome build- ing. At its entrance, on a certain afternoon in late December, an omnibus from the principal hotel ar- rived with quite a crowd of people. Its occupants were nearly all men — young men ; they were sitting upon one another's knees^ and standing in the middle, for they filled it to overflowing. They were all laughing hilariously, and the person who was making them laugh was the younger of the only two women in the omnibus. When the horses stopped, the men — some younger, some older — alighted without any abatement of their jovial state. Then they handed out the two women, and all the rugs and bags and umbrellas which be- longed to them. It seemed that the women only were the travellers, for the men had no luggage. The sky overhead was a dull soft grey; in the 110727 2 TI'E MADONNA OF A DAY. street a layer of snow lay upon everything, but it was not deep, and the air was soft ratlier than cold. The two women stood together upon the pavement in front of the entrance. The older was tall, and very plainly dressed. She was clever, she was sad, she was not given to interfering with others — all this was written on her face ; she had reached that maturity in which character and expression are fixed. The | younger woman was a plump blithe creature ; she I would have been perfectly fresh and delightful if it | had not been for a certain subtle spirit of unrest that '^i . . 'I peeped out, as it were, from behind her bright black | eyes and from the corners of her red lips with hard- | ening effect. She was young; as yet nothing was I imprinted very clearly upon her face. She was | dressed more richly than the other, but with sturdy | good sense. She was as alert and alive to what was going on around her as a chicken when its wings are all fluffy with excitement. She looked upon herself as a person of great importance, and took a vivid in- terest in every one about her. For the moment there happened to be no porter to unlade the trunks from the top of the omnibus. "Now," cried the young woman, "I'll bet a dollar to each, that you men, with all your miracu- lous vows of everlasting friendship, won't haul down the boxes and carry them in on your backs." She raised her voice to a delighted scream. " On your THE MADONNA OP A DAY. it it was d. The neiit ill ,nd very sad, she this was naturity 1. The re ; she ful if it rest that lit black th Hard- ing was Jhe was sturdy hat was ngs are herself ivid in- porter bus. bet a niracu- 1 down " She n your *acl's, my dear boys; I shan't lose my dollars on 'alse pretences." She escaped vulgarity. There was just enough of what was well bred in accent and aspect to make her loudness an interesting eccentricity rather than a loathsome commonplace. She gave way to immoderate and delighted laugh- ter as the group of men charged upon the omnibus, and with unaccustomed awkwardness hauled and pulled at the boxes strapped upon it. " We shall be too late," said the older woman to the younger, speak- ing in a dry dissatisfied way. "All right, my pet," was the answer; "Til pay your hotel bill for the extra day." Then in exclama- tion, " Hang me if those fellows don't knock off one or two of their heads! Oh, what heavenly fun it would be to have to take one or two of them back to the hotel in an ambulance, and have to stop and nurse them ! " " Speak for yourself," said the other one, with an air aloof and placid. By this time such servants of the station as should have done the work were standing aside, grinning widely. The men who had taken down the boxes were wrestling, each to obtain a box or a part of a box on his own shoulders. The fact that it was in some cases difficult for two men to get under one box made some moments' delay. THE MADONNA OP A DAY. The plump girl clapped her Lands, and gave a little dance of hilarity. " Run, my dear fellows, run ! or we shall lose the train as sure as death." She g> ve little shrieks of delighted laughter between her sentences. " And there's that infernal checking business to be gone through." The men in rollicking procession ran into the station, the girl beside them breathless with glib comments, small bits of mild profanity, and tlic very freshest gayest laughter imaginable. Her com- panion followed, swift and sedate. The train, about to start, shut in the long plat- form at one side. Its engine and carriages looked very large to eyes unaccustomed to American travel. " Have mercy on us ! " cried the girl. " What a huge way of spinning across the continent ! " The trunks having been checked, were carried on the backs of the hilarious cavaliers to the luggago car. Every one upon the platform or at the win- dows of the train was interested in the performance. The lively little lady who had instigated it stood at the steps of the drawing-room car into which she was about to enter, and clapped her hands, laughed and swore that it was the most amusing sight which she had ever witnessed. It was a piece of rather strong language she used this time; it came out evidently just to shock and interest two of the THE MADONNA OF A DAY. iicn of lier party who had by this time gained her iide. The ladies were helped to ascend into the car, all I their friends accompanying them through its first narrow passage-way into its main portion. Most of the men were still boisterous; one or two had as- jsumed a pensive expression by this time. This ex- pression was the most pronounced in the case of a slight fellow with a light moustache, who was called by the ladies, " Charlie." The girl patted Charlie upon the back. "Cheer up, dear old boy," she cried. "It's enormoutjly pretty to see you so down in the mouth, you know, but it's no go. Let us meet, part, and be merry, for to-morrow we die! — that, I think, comes out of the Yedas or some other ancient lit- I erature." She was the central figure of the group ; the older woman counted for very little, for though both in feature and figure she was much the handsomer, she was not happy, and the younger was radiantly happy. Happiness by its infection always attracts. Moreover, the younger was rich ; her purse was full, a large diamond sparkled on her hand. She had already taken out her Durse with a demonstration of business. " I hope i have enough of these vile bits of green paper to pay you in single dollars," she cried. 6 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. The first man to whom she presented a bank-note put his hands behind his back. Her whole being was swiftly transformed into a very personification of petty indignation. " What is this ? What does it mean ? Is it an insult?" Then she demanded of the others with flashing eyes, " What does he mean ? Does he take me for a * young lady ' ? Does he imagine that, when I lose a bet, I would fail to hand over the coin like any other man f " Iler impetuousness was such that each man re- ceived his dollar. One of them, as spokesman for the rest, began to protest that they would each pur- chase a charm for their watch-chains, but she scorn- fully told him not to be a " blethering idiot." She was evidently a new variety of woman to most of these men. Hasty as the leavetaking was, they watched her up to the last moment with eyes greedy to drink in every one of her unexpected glances and words. " Poor Charlie ! " she cried, " but he's my cousin, you know, and kin is kin all the world over. Come now, you must all go out, and I'll give him a cousinly kiss behind the door." The small company of men left the train after it * began to move ; they jumped from it with the same boisterous hilarity, with the exception of Charlie, who, after having been patronizingly kissed, reached m m THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 7 the platform looking much depressed. The lively prl, who had driven them along the small corridor ,s if they had been a flock of sheep, stood upon the [rear platform of the car waving her hands and [shouting and laughing as long as communication was possible. •€ m CHAPTER 11. The evening descended upon the train as it passed tlirough plain and canyon on its way eastward, towards the great mountains. The land, the rocks, the broad placid surface of the valleys, were white with snow ; only the tremulous lakes were grey ; tLe tumultuous rivers still ran with dark grey stream, and the firs made dark the hillsides which they clothed. Night fell ; snow blew against the windows of the cars; inside the palace sleeping-car the gorgeous lamps, inlaid woodwork, mirrors and bright curtains, were cheerful enough. At one end of this car the two young women wlio had entered it at Vancouver were in talk with a fel- low-traveller. The man was a missionary, but being a real person and not a play-actor, there was nothing very typical about him, nothing in his dress and man- ner that on the stage would have been recognized as denoting the species "missionary." He was a tall man, grey-haired, with a handsome clear-cut face ; lie looked as if he had his fair share of common-sense ; THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 9 lin as it eastward, he rocks, 3re white ^rey; the ^eam, and r clothed. ^rs of the unen who ith a fel- but being 8 nothing and man- )gnized as vas a tall face ; he ion-sense ; lis dress was not more remarkable than is usually the iase when travellers return to Western civilization ifter a long sojourn in the East. The missionary bent forward, his hands upon his :nees, a good-natured look of penetrating shrewdness ipon his face. " Now I know," he said, " what you ^oung ladies are doing. You have said to one an- )ther, ' There is an old fogey of a missionary ; we ^ill make up all sorts of stories, and amuse ourselves v)y shocking him.' " The elder leaned back in her corner with a languid smile. " We are extremely sorry if you are shocked," ihe said ; " it is the last thing that we desired." She looked out of the window at the darkness flecked 'ith white. The other made her disclaimer in the freshest, lost good-natured fashion in the world. " You are jntirely mistaken ; we were saying that we thought that you were a rather jolly fellow, and we think so ^et. We haven't told you anything but what was [perfectly Biblical in the way of truth — or rather, luch more truthful than what is Biblical, because we ^ere dealing with facts ; we've been ' speaking the Itrnth in love,' I do assure you. We are women [journalists. We are going round the world. You ire very much behind the times if you think English ^irls over twenty-one need any one to take care of them. Why, you know, we have been in all sorts of 10 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. # out-of-tlie way places. Of course it was often danger- ous, but that made something to write to the papers about. I bought an enormously precious stone in the East. I carry it with me. 1 expect to be murdered for it before I get home — that will be the denoue- mentP Her eyes sparkled with vivacity. " And in London," said the missionary, " I gather that you live in * chambers ' all alone, and go about at night quite freely." There was a genial interest in his tone. " Oh dear, yes ; why should I not ? The London police are quite efficient. I couldn't be murdered or anything. My friend here runs about Fleet Street at two and three o'clock in the morning, getting off telegrams to the provincial newspapers. I don't do that just because I don't happen to be in that line of work." " Or rather, because you are too rich to need to do iL" The elder woman made this dry comment. " There is nothing that would amuse me more than to do that sort of thing." " Therein you show a more debased taste than I, for I would not do it if it were not my daily bread." "We used to think that our American women were more independent than the English," said the missionary. He continued to look at the young girl much as one would look at a pretty and interesting child. THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 11 . danger- e papers le in the lurdered denoue- I gather about at terest in I London dered or 3t Street itting oil don't do it line of need to ment. lore than e than I, Y bread." I women said the 3ung girl iteresting " Oh dear, no ; I consider yonr American women uite behind the age. Why, now, for instance, just esterday at Vancouver I gave a little dinner in the lotel. Well, I had to do it in common honesty. I lappened to have a cousin in Vancouver, and he had wrought some of his friends to call. I had been there I a week ; they had treated me ; I had, of course, to do something in return ; but some Americans in the hotel were quite shocked. The hotel people were wonder- fully decent about the dinner, and let me have it un- commonly cheap too. Waiters and hotel clerks are always tremendously nice to me. I don't know why it is, but I always find it that way. I showed the bill to one of the men, a very nice fellow that I had got Ito know quite well, and he said a man would never Jhave got it so cheap." St I "AYhat did you have for dinner?" asked the mis- sionary, " and what was the price ? " j^ She was not talking for effect ; she was quite car- |ried away with the interest of what she was relating. It is usually the thing we like to talk about that we can talk about best; she succeeded in absorbing his attention. " Well, I'll tell you. There were eight of us — my friend here, my cousin Charlie, and five other men. I talked to them tremendously at the hotel be- orehand, so that they really gave us everything very ood — that is to say, good for Yancouvor. We had 12 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. ten courses. Well, I didn't have champagne. Cham- pagne is tremendously dear, you know, here, and not very good ; but 1 had sherry and a very good Bur- gundy. Of course I didn't get cigarettes from the hotel ; I always carry my own. But now, what do you think the bill, including the wine, came to ? " " I have no idea," said the missionary, quite truly. '* Only four pounds ! I was quite taken aback when I saw it ; but of course I paid it, and didn't ask any questions. I just smiled upon the clerk who took the money ; but, as I say, I showed it to a friend after- ward, and we chuckled over it together. I have often noticed that they favour me at hotels. I always make a point of talking in a friendly way to the clerks and the waiters ; they like it, and it doesn't do me any harm." " I^ow that I think of it," the missionary spoke meditatively, " I have seen your name in the papers. I have read a description of you." She brightened visibly ; an obvious thrill of pleas- ure went through her frame. " Oh, I dare say ; I write a good deal, you know, in various journals, and several of my friends who do interviewing have threatened to publish a sketch of me. What was the name of the paper ? When one is flying round the world one can't keep up to date with these things." " I do not know that your friends have been so personal as you suppose. I merely meant that even t -;7f m' m m^\ lit 1' W' 9 is Jan W^ 9r Ith ^ri( ■br Mio mil ■to ■Ol w >aB Iwc ■I ( 1 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 18 [at a remote mission station I have read paragraphs Iconcerning the ' New Woman.' " She was disappointed, and she was still so jonng and full of life that she had not the heart to coi^ceal it, hut in a moment she took up the new theme with all her former zest. " And heing in a remote mission station, I suppose you helicved the idiotic and transcendent ruhhish that is written about her. Xow, I'll tell you what it is, land you may believe me. I have been three years at GiriOii, and I've lived in town for a year or two, and Irve travelled round the world, and I can assure you ithat the ' Xew Woman ' is a pure myth. She is a jridiculoiis and horrid phantasm, evolved out of the brains of a few authors who did not know what else to interest the public with, and believed in only by the simple and credulous, who unfortunately, however, go to make up the greater portion of every community. Oh, she's been a great scare, I admit, but there's ab- solutely nothing in it." "I beg your pardon," said the missionary. "I [thoudit that I had classified vou." " Well, as you've come from the Pacific Ocean I Iwon't be offended. I am not thin-skinned any way ; [I can always get on with a man who says what he ithinks. I adore plain downright dealing." " What are the mythical attributes ? " he asked. " The characteristics of the myth ? Well, in the 2 14 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 4 first place, she has no prinel})lc. Now why, iii tho name of heaven, I ask you, should vonian at the end of the nineteenth century be supposed to have less principle than she had in all the other centuries? She may live in a different way ; she may be happy and live in a fiat, and have a latchkey, instead of sit- ting snarling over the fire at her brother's wife who doesn't waui: her. She may earn her own living in- stead of insisting that some man should pay her bills. She may make good, downright honest friendships with men instead of merely flirting with them in a ballroom ; and if she doesn't believe in religion she can stay at home from church instead of continuing to keep up a respectable sham. Do these things necessarily take away her principle ? I tell you, the men and women that go about saying that a woman does not believe in anything because she does not be- lieve in shamming, prove themselves to be far more unprincipled than the modern women I have met." She was very young; she had her enthusiasms, and this was evidently one of them. She looked at the missionary with bright red cheeks, but she was not abusing him ; she was rather appealing to him. " All that may be quite true," said the missionary — " you have, as you say, a very fair right to judge ; but why do you proclaim your opinion to me in the name of heaven ? Why heaven ? " " Did I say in the name of heaven ? " She THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 16 ill tile tlie end ave less ituries ? 3 happy d of sit- ife who virig iii- ler bills, iiidships jm in a i^ion she | [itinuing J things you, the I L woman 3 not be- Far more met." lusiasms, ooked at she was ) him. issionary judge ; ae in the I )> She langhe;]. " Well, then in the name of the sky — it is [all one to nie — in the name of the blue distance, in the name of the ether, why ohould I be supposed to be unprincipled because I drink plenty of wine and smoke cigarettes? If you saw a man taking wine and smoking just as I do, would you argue that he would tell lies, and break vows, and be indifferent as to his personal dignity and moral worth ? I suppose that if you are a rabid teetotaler and an anti-tobacco- nist you do argue that way, but the facts would not [bear you out." " I am not a tobacconist of any sort," said the Imissionarv, smilin ■lii^ii I'^i " i! ill ^1 i! il!' 22 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. once when I was about fourteen and walked out of the house in winter in my sleep. How my father did row me about it the next day, to be sure ! The old fellow seemed to think that I was responsible for my actions." " How far did you go ? " — with languid interest. " Oh ! not farther than halfw^ay down our gar- den, happily. But I used frequently to find myself wandering about the passages, I was quite a crack somnambulist." " I did not know that you had ever done any- thing so interesting. Have you outgrown the talent ? " " Rather ! " — here a sudden thrilling laugh of great amusement — " or I should not have travelled round the world so easily. Hang it ! what mag- nificent messes one could get one's self into that way." They began now the process of what might be called undressing for the night, but what was in reality exchanging one set of outside wraps for another. When they had turned out of their own compartment to allow the beds to be made, the sad- eyed woman began unrolling a grey dressing-jacket. Little Miss Polly produced a bundle of blue silk, and began displaying it with a pride and satisfaction which rode roughshod over the other's indifference. She was a very natural girl, chubby, dimpled, and THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 23 out of I father s! The dble for terest. )ur gar- l myself a crack >ne any- wn the augh of travelled lat mag- nto that night be i was in raps for leir own , the sad- ig- jacket. 3lue silk, tisfaction ifference. pled, and fund of dress. Her name happened to be Mary 'loward. " Look liere, this is that lovely thing I bought In Persia. I have dedicated it to night travelling ; t will keep the dust out of one's hair and clothes, •ou know, without giving one a stuffy feeling. Isn't It a magnificent blue 1 "' " It is just yards and yards of stuff. There is 10 shape about it ; how do you keep it on ? " " I am the shape ; this is the drapery. I learned [rom the natives how to j)ut it on. This is the for- lula : once over the head, twice round the neck, and ^hen the long end loosely over your head and shoul- lers like a shawl. So ! " " Picturesque ! " — critically — " but it's not in character ; you look something like a coloured image tn a church." Mary Howard had a certain daintiness about her wiiich was distinctly womanly. When she had wrapped herself in the blue silk veil, she took off lier boots and put on warm woollen slippers of the ?ame liue. This, of course, took place behind the heavv curtains that shut her off from the rest of the ^ar. She stretched out her winsey skirts very straight md smooth as she lay upon the couch ; then she Idrew up the blanket, leaned back upon the pillows, laiid went to sleep. The train jolted on ; every one else in the car 24 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. s i !:' ! I III I liii" went to sleep, too, even tlie commercial travellers who sat up long in the smoking compartment so that the black porter was very sleepy indeed before lie could settle himself for the night. The black porter sat on a stool in the little passage that led to the ladies' dressing-room ; he leaned his head against the wall and slept as soundly as in a bed, because he was accustomed to it ; the jolting of the car was to | him a lullaby. The train went in and out of the snowsheds in the Eagle Pass by which it was crossing the Gold Eange. The sleeping travellers knew nothing of sheds and mountains, lakes and rivers. Long after midnight the train came to a place where the snow was so deep on certain curves that they had to go slowly. It was, perhaps, the slackening of speed which disturbed one sleeper in the palace car. Mary Howard sat up in her berth, and with groping uncertain hands pushed down her blanket. She separated her curtains, slipped out, and stood | alone in the narrow passage between tlie long rows of curtained berths. The eye of the shaded night- lamp looked down upon a litt1<^ blue-draped figure shod in noiseless wool. Sleep htid a softening effect on a face that, at its happiest, when awake, was gay rather than satisfied. She stood a moment at the entrance of the Httle passage in which the porter slept; she did not see him though her pretty eyes THE MADONXA OF A DAY. 25 .vellers lent so before } black led to against ause lie was to lieds in le Gold liing of ig after le snow d to go f speed id with blanket, id stood )ng rows d niglit- d figure mg effect was gay it at the le porter etty eyes wore wide open, but no doubt sue perceived him with the mysterious perception of the somnambulist, for she avoided brushing his knee with her petticoat, and he slept on. At the end of the passage there were two doors, one opening into the dressing-room and one on to the rear platform of the car. A walled-in compartment >hnt out the view of what was passing here from any ione inside the car; no one heard the heavy handle of the outer door turn, no one felt the breath of icy wind that rushed in at the transient opening. The girl stepped outside upon the platform, and shut the door Ihehind her. Ko doubt in her mind some dream was going for- Iward ; perhaps it was a reminiscence of past somnam- Ibnlistic adventures which she had that evening re- called ; perhaps it was a vision of the " men friends" of Vancouver, to whom, upon this very platform, she liad bidden farewell. Whatever the motive in the sleeping mind, she put her hand upon the rail, slowly lescended the three steps of the carriage, and then stepped off into the winter night. Tlie train was going slowly ; the girl fell four or five feet down a low embankment, and landed upon a )ed of snow. This was her awakening ; and shocked, terrified, unable to conceive what had befallen her, she ay for a minute gazing at the expanse of the starry leavcn, at the shadowy mountains, at the glimmering 20 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. i ill III iiii I 111 !!t!l snow around her, at the receding lights of tlie rat- tling train. It was the sight of these lights moving in the distance that recalled her to reality. She rose lip and shrieked ; she shrieked wildly, madly, till the thunder of the train had died in the clear cold air. She sank back upon the snow, and covered her face with her hands. Gradually it came to her mind what i must have occurred. Her former sleep-walking experi- i ences came to her aid ; something in the sensations she was passing through recalled previcus sensations, and gave the clue to what otherwise would have been in- explicable. Her first feeling of mad, panic-stricken 1 anger against those on board the train passed away ; | no one was to blame, and yet the fact remained — the awful fact of her present situation. Again she rose and looked about her ; there was not in the snow-clad hills a single light to be seen. She climbed up to the track. The snow lay under the starlight unbroken, as far as she could see, except for the two dark lines of rails. It was too dark to see whither the curving road led in either direction. She could only discern the tops of the mountains as they showed against the starry sky, and the glimmering snow for a few feet immediately around her. In this small space she perceived that the side of the hill on . which she had fallen rose abruptly, and that on the other side the embankment sloped some fifty feet to a J THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 27 wide valley. In the valley she heard the sound of a rushing river. She was not more adventurous or heroic than is the i average woman. She had travelled far, it was true, hut the dangers which, in her own version of her ex- ploits, she had always vigorously triumphed over, had |heen chiefly imaginary ; she had sufficient good sense to he inwardly conscious that it was so. Kow, realiz- ing that, unprotected as she was from the cold and un- :nown dangers, she might easily be out of reach of my succour, she perceived that no affectation of cour- ige would avail her, that no glorious account which she might ever write of her own pro^vess would com- )ensate for her present suffering. "What danger she might be in from bears or wolves, phe did not know ; the darkness became full of jhadow^y shapes and unimaginable terrors ; but to re- nain still, lightly clad, in the winter night was certain leath. She could walk nowhere but upon the line, [haven smooth by the engine's plough, for the snow ly drifted a foot or eighteen inches deep upon the lillside. At first she hurt her small feet badly again md again, because she could not see the hard sleepers, )ut gradually she learnt to measure her pace to their listance, and then she got on better. She often cast frightt 'ed glances behind, but in [11 the darkness there wat nothing, neither sound, nor lovement, nor shape — which increased her alarm. I *■.* 28 THE MADONNA OF A DAY. !!i!T:T m.\t '!!! m ir Hi'?' "iiiiij ■ [Ml' m When she had had time to discover that in the present solitude there was nothing to terrify, lier fears began to centre about the settlement towards which she supposed herself to be going. How could she tell whether she would find friends or enemies in any house which she ventured to disturb ? She re- membered with relief that what money and valuables she had brought on her journey were secreted in the bosom of her dress. Some of her hardihood came back with the knowledge that she was not without that magic power which, so far, had always served her in every emergency. In imagination she began to conduct shrewd bargains with such settlers or Indians as she might be fortunate enough to meet. After that it occurred to her that wealth might prove her worst foe ; how easy it would be in this region to put her poor little body out of sight to gain posses- sion of a considerable sum of money. Yet she did| not throw away the money; she had too great anj idea of her own power of finesse. She believed that] in cleverness and knowledge of the w^orld she could i outwit even evil-minded folk. By that strange lapse j of attention so often seen in those who take precau- tions, while thinking of her purse, she forgot the! diamond ring upon her hand, the very diamond of whose dangerous value she had boasted to the mis-j sionary. A vast sky of sparkling stars above, vast darkling] i; THE MADONNA OF A DAY. 29 slopes of snow-clad peaks around — nothing elhc was there, but the black valley, the sound of the river, darkness, solitude, and one small girlish figure walk- ing fast upon the curving iron road ; it was very wonderful — the girl herself had enough poetic feel- in