"hoop-la!" cried mabel clarke joyously. and bending over the neck of her yellow-dun horse she urged him to a trot; vittorio lante also brought his horse, a powerful black, to a trot. the amazon and her cavalier trotted side by side for some minutes in a cloud of dust. descending by the hill that separates the dorf from the valley of samaden, going through the little shady, peaceful wood, grazing the tall hedges, fragrant with aroma beneath the matutinal dew, mabel clarke brought her horse to a walk and vittorio lante imitated her. but when the american girl issued from the wood on to the high road, where the broad valley of samaden opens out, she perceived that the two equipages, the large white brake and the victoria, containing the rest of the party had made great progress and were hardly to be distinguished, being ahead beyond celerina and on the way to pontresina; she felt a sudden rush of infantile impatience, and inciting her horse and the cavalier who accompanied her, she wanted to catch up and pass the two carriages.
dexterously firm in the saddle, in a dark blue habit which made her seem taller and slimmer, and a most attractive dark blue doublet, fastened by tiny buttons, with a white collar fastened by a big gold pin, with a tea rose in her buttonhole, and a round straw hat, surrounded by a blue veil that even restrained the thick, riotous, chestnut hair, and floated behind in transparent blue waves, gloved in yellow deer-skin, booted exquisitely, mabel clarke was more than ever fascinating in her florid beauty, in her graceful vigour, and vibrant youth. she did not look at the very bright, almost white, morning sky, a sky of an ineffable softness. she took no heed of the fresh air, so sweet to breathe; and she cared not for a sun that was very bland, whose rays were bright without fierceness. she gave herself up, in happy unconsciousness, to the joy of being young, healthy, beautiful, of guiding and being guided by a strong horse, faithful and safe, passing at a steady trot along the broad road, amidst the meadows soft with dew, only turning every minute to see if her cavalier, don vittorio lante, were following closely. that perfect cavalier, who was trotting with ease and youthful heedlessness, was quite close to her, scarcely bending over his horse, smiling every time at the softly blue-veiled face of mabel clarke, who smiled at him for a moment. in the buttonhole of his riding-coat he had placed a tea rose; beneath the brim of his soft grey felt hat a peaceful countenance revealed itself, and an expression full of happiness that was reflected from his glance. his surroundings, with their charm of air and light and perfume, did not affect him; or perhaps they reached him through his dream. twice with a gesture of fastidiousness the amazon and her knight were forced to rein in their horses, putting them to a walking pace, to pass the little village of cresta and the district of celerina, in the narrow, twisting, badly paved streets. but when once again they emerged on to the high road and had passed the sounding wooden bridge over the inn, they yielded themselves to a strong trot, again inciting and urging each other, always gaining more ground on the carriages.
"go! go! go!" exclaimed mabel clarke gutturally, in english.
already this gay chase was perceived from the carriages, and many-coloured parasols and white handkerchiefs were to be seen waved in greeting from the brake; the two ladies in the victoria turned their heads, more tranquilly, as if to encourage the proud riders more pacifically, who were advancing and suddenly reached and passed the victoria, mabel clarke sending a kiss with the handle of her whip to mrs. clarke and a nod to the other lady, mrs. gertrude milner, don vittorio lante bowing and saluting with his whip. they overtook the large brake, skirting it, the one on the right, the other on the left, where, laughing and gesticulating, ellen and norah west, susy milner, and rachel rodd jumped up to welcome them, as well as several young men, who in french and english also welcomed them in pleasant, jolly terms, while mabel and vittorio, on their part, laughing and calling out a little, responded to all the enthusiasm.
for a long portion of the road there was a war of chaff between the brake and the two riders as they came up or passed from time to time, an exchange of greetings and apostrophes in french and english, the girls pronouncing mabel's name a hundred times, and she shaking her beautiful brown head as she smiled and laughed, her veil swelling behind her in blue waves, while vittorio lante played his part in regulating his black to mabel's yellow-dun; and even he was amused by the playful briskness of their chaff.
annie clarke and gertrude milner in the victoria more quietly contented themselves with a kindly wave of the hand or a nod of the head or an indulgent little smile when mabel and vittorio passed them. annie clarke was wearing a light grey dress of masculine cut and a round hat, wrapped round with a light grey gauze veil; beneath her white collar on the dark tie, knotted in man's fashion, a very simple pin was fixed, an enormous shining black pearl, a unique jewel. gertrude milner was austerely dressed in black, but on the white lace which formed the yoke of her waistcoat she wore a single string of large pearls, which she never took off. people said that gertrude milner even wore these pearls at night when she slept.
as they sped towards pontresina neither the amazon nor her cavalier, nor the young girls in the brake, nor the ladies in the victoria seemed aware of how they were leaving behind them the meadows of celerina, the distances of samaden, and the heights of the muottas and the corvatsch; the profile of pizalbris to the left, and to the right the curve of the fuorcla, the deep woods that alternate with arid glebe and stones and rocks, and the white flatzbach, that milky, tumultuous torrent which comes from the white bernina. they seemed not to see how in grandiose and solemn line the two mountains opened, to show the gigantic roseg glacier in a bluish whiteness beneath the bland sun. perhaps the fresh, caressing air, the vault of heaven brighter than ever, and the soft morning light vibrated within them as intimate and secret elements of serenity, content, and subtle intoxication. but none of them wanted to, or knew how to, take account of these hidden influences. they enjoyed everything without analysing, and the strong desire of arriving quickly at their goal possessed them. the horses of the riders, of the brake, of the victoria, urged on by spur and whip, sped on to arrive together more quickly than anyone had ever made the journey, with the headstrong anxiety of always being first, which is one of the forces of the american race. the maids and youths in the brake were annoyed at every other vehicle, and tried to pass them, urging on the driver, the robust joe wealther, the fiancé of ellen west. mabel and vittorio were annoyed with whatever they met in the way, an obstacle to their race; and with smiling and mischievous eyes they exchanged, the american and the italian, their impetuous desire of ever speeding ahead, as they disturbed groups of pedestrians, and scattered clouds of dust over the other carriages. in the victoria annie clarke and gertrude milner, the two peaceful and dignified matrons, grew weary of all the other road-farers; they drew the rug over their knees in a distracted and distant manner, appearing to be not the least aware of other wayfarers on foot or in carriage. they grew proudly weary, desiring quietly, as the others desired ardently, to reach the morteratsch glacier quickly, whither all were directed, and where they must see everything in the shortest time and return at once to st. moritz dorf for luncheon at the palace hotel.
"the lunch is execrable here at the glacier restaurant," annie clarke declared, with a knowing air.
still, in spite of all their american hurry, on entering that strange district of pontresina, studded with little wooden houses, in two rows, as if from a child's box of toys, carriage and riders were forced to go at a foot-pace. the row of carriages became much longer—hotel omnibuses, barouches coming and going in every direction to and from the roseg, towards samaden and the bernina. even denser were the people on foot, who came and went, and grouped themselves at the doors of the hotels with their hundred rooms, before the cafés and the confectionery shops—a bizarre crowd, so different from that of st. moritz.
"très inélégante, pontresina," declared gertrude milner, in her turn, with american gravity.
however, they were forced to halt in the square before the post office, like all the other carriages, to let the horses have a moment's breather. the girls in the brake clamoured for the famous chocolate truffle of the pasticceria, a ma compagne, so their two cavaliers jumped from the brake to go and fetch some; two others went for a whisky and soda. vittorio lante patiently allowed his horse to drink at a fountain near by. mabel approached her mother's carriage and bent over her as fresh as a flower.
"happy, mabel?" asked the mother tranquilly, scarcely smiling.
"most happy, mammy, very happy!" exclaimed the daughter.
smiling, chatting, and exchanging chocolates and caramels, the girls in the brake pretended that joe wealther should make the horses go furiously on leaving pontresina; but he imperturbably kept an even pace in spite of their protests. mabel and vittorio again trotted briskly, and even the peaceful victoria was transported at a trot. beneath a sky increasingly pale, as if a great pallor had been diffused beneath the blue, with the light of the sun now veiled, the countryside was profoundly changed. a broad, deserted valley, between two rows of black, rocky mountains, opened out, and stretched monotonously and sadly. here and there a rare herb grew between the rocks with some big, dusty, yellow flower. stones were everywhere, from the little pebble to the massive boulder, heaps of dry earth were crumbling, and little mounds of black earth concealed the meagre course of a stream which now and then reappeared, weak and tinged. so silent was the sadness of that valley, and the death of everything lively and gracious, that behind her blue veil mabel's grey eyes grew disturbed and she felt the need of breaking the sad silence that oppressed her, and of hearing the voice of her cavalier.
"do you love all this, lante?"
they were alone, sufficiently far from the carriage; their horses close together, head to head, relaxed their pace to the reins held slackly in their hands.
"i love you, miss clarke," he replied promptly, with an unwonted impulse, more passionate than sentimental.
"do you even love me here, in this arid, gloomy place?" she asked, as if another, a more intense amorous declaration were necessary for her, to conquer, perhaps, the melancholy that weighed her down, or for some other mysterious uncertainty of her soul.
"here, and everywhere, and always," he said seriously, as if he were proclaiming a shining truth and pronouncing a sublime oath.
"ah!" she exclaimed simply, as if in a dream.
for an instant, almost in a dream, mabel bowed her head, as if she wished to drive away every molesting care. she pulled sharply at her horse's rein, to resume a more rapid pace.
the carriages approached. mabel and vittorio distanced them again. the man was silent and thoughtful, as if disturbed at what had bubbled forth from his soul in a cry of sincerity. she was silent, watching him now and then, as if to scrutinise his thoughts and feelings, because the accent, which had been more earnest than she had previously heard, had reached her. the horses trotted head to head.
"is this the bernina road, lante?" she asked in a low voice.
"yes, miss clarke," he murmured.
"then it is the road to italy?"
"exactly, to italy, miss clarke."
there was an instant of silence. he leant his head towards her and said to her in a voice she had never heard before:
"miss clarke, shall we gallop to italy? together, alone, to italy, miss clarke?"
she looked him frankly in the eyes, wishing to penetrate his heart and soul. and he withstood well the woman's glance, directed sharply at him in its desire to know the truth. a light laugh issued from her young mouth.
"why do you laugh, miss clarke? it is not right to laugh so," he exclaimed rather harshly.
the laugh changed into such an affectionate and sincere smile that without her speaking he understood. he added anxiously, but with happy anxiety:
"would you come, miss clarke? would you come?"
"perhaps i would come, lante," she replied, again become serious.
"will you come?"
"perhaps i will come," she added gravely.
pale with joy, he stooped and suddenly clasped her hand and kissed it in an act of devotion and dedication. nothing more was said. the brake full of girls and young men came up to them, who continued to chatter and laugh, emitting guttural exclamations, to conquer the desolate solemnity of the country through which they were passing, and up to them came the victoria where annie clarke and gertrude milner had drawn on their heavy fur capes, since the sky was now an immense pallor above the great valley rough with boulders and rocks, and the sun, that had become a spectral pallor over the naked, rude mountains, had made them feel cold. everyone in carriage and on horseback sighed with relief as, making the last stretch of road, wooded like the avenue of an oasis in such an austere landscape, they smiled at the foaming, sounding, clamorous cascade that in a little gorge among the trees comes from the bernina and penetrates underground, and further off reappears a torrent, and becomes lower down a river. after a few paces all had to descend.
a wooden bridge was the extreme limit for carriages and horses. to reach the glacier it was necessary to go on foot.
"is it impossible for all to drive?" asked gertrude milner, very scandalised in her american dignity.
"impossible, dearest gertrude," replied annie clarke, shaking her head. "if you are tired we can stop at the restaurant."
"the glacier is very badly managed," murmured miss milner, offended in her habitual laziness and her american amour-propre.
"very badly," agreed mrs. clarke, who never liked walking.
they began to walk slowly after the young people. the party walked rapidly, in couples and groups, mabel far in advance of all, lifting over her arm the train of her riding habit, showing her slender little feet and some of her leg. vittorio was beside her, not leaving her for a step. but in the frank sense of respect for another's liberty, which is one of the noblest things in american social life, none of the party bothered about them. not even mabel's mother seemed to be aware of the very open love-making, even in its correct form. ellen and norah west's mother had remained at sils maria, allowing her daughter, ellen, to go alone with her fiancé joe wealther. mrs. gertrude milner worried not at all about the flirtation of her daughter, susy, with pierre d'alfort, the witty and amiable young frenchman, who fascinated the girl by the originality of his boutades, and much less did she trouble herself about the flirtations of her niece, rachel rodd, with the vicomte de lynen, the belgian, a troublesome and ever-deluded hunter after a big dowry, who even here was making a false move, for rachel rodd was very poor, with only a dowry of one hundred thousand dollars. at times the couples met and formed large groups, whence issued jokes and laughter, only to separate spontaneously and correctly. only mabel and vittorio, who had dismounted, started off at a brisk walk, as if they did not wish to be overtaken; but no one followed hard on them, for they took care to keep the distance, and no one called after them. suddenly, however, the party halted to look around.
the morteratsch valley opened out on two sides, on which the mountain larches climb to a certain height, slender and brown, with supple branches; higher up the sides rose even more naked and less green, until quite high up they were delineated against the sky, to right and left, in massy profiles of dark rock. in the middle distance and the background, in gigantic, white, rugged, naked cliffs, in colossal undulations, that had been immovable for centuries and for centuries covered with snow, as hard as the rocks it hid, the glacier opened out, arose, advanced, and took up all the horizon; it advanced like an immense white wall, and then like an immense black wall, forward, forward, as if it were walking towards the onlooker, towards the rapt, ecstatic crowd in front—an immense peaked wall that seemed of rock but was really of ice. three majestic peaks stood above it: on the left the piz bellavista, on the other side towards the left the piz morteratsch, and finally, very lofty, fearsome, and white without a scar or rent, the queen of mountains, the virgin of mountains—the bernina.
here, round the little one-storeyed restaurant, with its tables spread in the open air, some beneath an awning, round a kiosk, where post cards and little souvenirs of the morteratsch were on sale, a whole squad of silent people were contemplating the glacier. before it lay a stretch of ground, covered with big and little rocks brought there by the winter avalanches; amid the boulders ran a meandering torrent, while to the right was a faintly traced little path among the rocks which higher up, as it approached the great black wall of the glacier, disappeared; and nothing but stones and water proceeded from the glacier, where a gloomy grotto was hollowed out, which seemed like a speck in the distance.
"why is the glacier so black in front?" gertrude asked annie, in a low voice.
"it is covered with rocks and earth," was the reply.
"dommage," murmured gertrude in french.
for some minutes the enchantment of the glacier remained over the crowd that was admiring it, silent and astonished. then figures began to separate, attracted as by a magnet, and set out for the small path, while other figures more in advance were already there, small and diminishing, flitting from rock to rock—little black specks of beings who were at the grotto or coming from it. the coming and going was continuous; the men gave their hands to the ladies to make them walk more safely, or preceded them to point out the best way, while the lofty wall, all white in front, all black above, and finally at the horizon white with reflections of metallic blue and gold, in altitudes and precipices which seemed the monstrous waves of a sea petrified for ages, caused the crowd of visitors to seem even more tiny and miserable.
"we will stay here," said annie clarke to the party.
"we will stay," approved gertrude milner.
"au revoir, mama," cried mabel to her mother from afar, as she approached the glacier, accompanied by vittorio.
"au revoir, au revoir," exclaimed the young people of the party as they left.
quietly seated at a restaurant table, beneath the awning, annie clarke and gertrude milner took a cup of tea to warm themselves, watching, without troubling, the figures of their daughters ever growing smaller, as they proceeded over the sharp rocks, along the torrent, towards the glacier.
around them at the tables some were taking tea, others were drinking beer, and others writing on post cards. people arrived continuously from the road behind the bridge where the carriages were halted, and others arrived from the glacier. everywhere nothing but german was to be heard, and the very waitresses of the inn were fr?ulein who did not understand a word of english or french.
"even here all are germans," murmured gertrude with a sneer, as she sipped her tea.
"and jews! what a nuisance, dear," added the very catholic annie.
mabel and vittorio had almost reached the goal. as they approached the way became more dangerous amid the great rocks which had to be jumped, and from which it was easy to slip. mabel's high heels made her hesitate and vacillate every moment. frowning and anxious about making a stupid fall, she ended by placing her two hands in vittorio's, although at first she had refused any support; then in three leaps she reached the opening of the ice grotto with him. he made her climb the last boulder, lifting her like a child, as he deposited her on a mound of earth, and so gracefully that she smiled at him adorably to thank him. the immense wall stood over their heads; through two enormous clefts they perceived its fearsome height and profundity. the enormous walls were dripping icy water, and drops of icy water fell from the arch of the cleft, whence was formed the strange grotto. near at hand, beneath a colossal and sinuous streak of ice, which was the tail of the glacier, the torrent bubbled forth mysteriously and sped away. they penetrated beneath the white arch that overwhelmed them, amid the ice that surrounded them with a cold embrace; the gelid drops fell on their cheeks and foreheads. vittorio felt mabel's hand trembling a little as it sought his.
"would you rather go out?" he asked, guessing her secret wish.
"i would rather," she replied at once.
they completed the short circuit of the grotto and left. she was pale as if she breathed with difficulty under the immense wall; and she breathed deeply, in fact, when once again she was on rocks in the open air. she perceived a little road that climbed among the boulders to the right.
"come," she said, approaching vittorio.
it was not an easy or short ascent for her cavalier to a promontory which arose to the side; and they still met people who were descending, chatting harshly in german, while further off the rest of the party followed them. turning suddenly, they perceived that they had climbed higher than the wall of the glacier, and that it was spreading before their eyes from top to bottom in an immeasurable breadth, bounded on the right by two great moraines of black rocks, all white in the middle, and at the back climbing, heaping, sinking, rugged and profound, towards the two lofty peaks of bellavista and morteratsch, towards the beautiful and virginal bernina, the mistress of the mountains. they sat down on a large rock, and both were seized and conquered by the solemn, majestic, and terrible spectacle. they were alone; before them was the potent immensity of things that had lasted for ages and would last through the ages.
suddenly mabel clarke turned to vittorio lante and asked him in a clear, precise voice:
"you really are free, lante?"
he looked into the quiet eyes that questioned him and replied sincerely:
"yes, i am free, miss clarke."
mabel still contemplated for a moment the whiteness of the far-away ice and the purity of the neighbouring snow; her accent was again firm and fierce as she asked:
"you are poor, are you not, lante?"
there rose before the eyes of the italian gentleman the more than ever impressing spectacle that elevates souls and exalts them to supreme truth. beside him was a creature of truth and beauty. from his ardent heart there burst forth a pure flame of truth. courageously, without shame and with simplicity, he declared:
"i am very poor, miss clarke."
mabel smiled as never before, and her hand brushed vittorio's in a grateful, loyal, pure caress.
