Interlaken and then hung about between that place and Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. It delighted him to sit still on some outer bench, looking at the mountains, with a cigar in his mouth, and it seemed to delight them to be with him. Much that Mr Grey prophesied had come true. The two girls were ministers to him, instead of having himas their slave.
‘What fine fellows those Alpine club 4 men think themselves,’ he said on one of these occasions, ‘and how thoroughly they despise the sort of enjoyment I get from mountains. But they’re mistaken.’
‘I don’t see why either need be mistaken,’ said Alice.
‘But they are mistaken,’ he continued. ‘They rob the mountains of their poetry, which is or should be their greatest charm. MontBlanc can have no mystery for a man who has been up it half a dozen times. It’s like getting behind the scenes at a ballet, or making a conjuror explain his tricks.’
‘But is the exercise nothing?’ said Kate.
‘Yes; the exercise is very fine; – but that avoids the question.’
‘And they all botanize,’ said Alice.
‘I don’t believe it. I believe that the most of them simply walk up the mountainand down again. But if they did, that avoids the question also. The poetry and mystery of the mountains are lost to those who make themselves familiar with their details, not the less because such familiarity may have useful results. In this world things are beautiful only because they are not quite seen, or not perfectly understood. Poetry is precious chiefly because it suggests more than it declares.Look in there, through that valley, where you just see the distant little peak at the end. Are you not dreaming of the unknown beautiful world that exists up there; – beautiful, as heaven is beautiful, because you know nothing of the reality? If you make your way up there and back tomorrow, and find out all about it, do you mean to say that it will be as beautiful to you when you come back?’
‘Yes; – I think it would,’ said Alice.
‘Then you’ve no poetry in you. Now I’m made up of poetry.’ After that they began to laugh at him and were very happy.
I think that Mr Grey was right in answering Alice’s letter as he did; but I think that Lady Macleod was also right in saying that Alice should not have gone to Switzerland in company with George Vavasor. A peculiar familiarity sprang up,which, had all its circumstances been known to Mr Grey, would not have entirely satisfied him, even though no word was said which might in itself have displeased him. During the first weeks of their travelling no word was said which would have displeased him; but at last, when the time for their return was drawing nigh, when their happiness was nearly over, and that feeling of melancholy was comingon them which always pervades the last hours of any period that has been pleasant, – then words became softer than they had been, and references were made to old days, – allusions which never should have been permitted between them.
Alice had been very happy, – more happy perhaps in that she had been a joint minister with Kate to her cousin George’s idle fantasies, than she would have been hurryingabout with him as her slave. They had tacitly agreed to spoil him with comforts; and girls are always happier in spoiling some man than in being spoiled by men. And he had taken it all well, doing his despotismpleasantly, exacting much, but exacting nothing that was disagreeable. And he had been amusing always, as Alice thought without any effort. But men and women, when they show themselvesat their best, seldom do so without an effort If the object be near the heart the effort will be pleasant to him who makes it, and if it be made well, it will be hidden; but, not the less, will the effort be there. George Vavasor had on the present occasion done his very best to please his cousin.
They were sitting at Basle one evening in the balcony of the big hotel 5 which overlooks the Rhine.The
‘What fine fellows those Alpine club 4 men think themselves,’ he said on one of these occasions, ‘and how thoroughly they despise the sort of enjoyment I get from mountains. But they’re mistaken.’
‘I don’t see why either need be mistaken,’ said Alice.
‘But they are mistaken,’ he continued. ‘They rob the mountains of their poetry, which is or should be their greatest charm. MontBlanc can have no mystery for a man who has been up it half a dozen times. It’s like getting behind the scenes at a ballet, or making a conjuror explain his tricks.’
‘But is the exercise nothing?’ said Kate.
‘Yes; the exercise is very fine; – but that avoids the question.’
‘And they all botanize,’ said Alice.
‘I don’t believe it. I believe that the most of them simply walk up the mountainand down again. But if they did, that avoids the question also. The poetry and mystery of the mountains are lost to those who make themselves familiar with their details, not the less because such familiarity may have useful results. In this world things are beautiful only because they are not quite seen, or not perfectly understood. Poetry is precious chiefly because it suggests more than it declares.Look in there, through that valley, where you just see the distant little peak at the end. Are you not dreaming of the unknown beautiful world that exists up there; – beautiful, as heaven is beautiful, because you know nothing of the reality? If you make your way up there and back tomorrow, and find out all about it, do you mean to say that it will be as beautiful to you when you come back?’
‘Yes; – I think it would,’ said Alice.
‘Then you’ve no poetry in you. Now I’m made up of poetry.’ After that they began to laugh at him and were very happy.
I think that Mr Grey was right in answering Alice’s letter as he did; but I think that Lady Macleod was also right in saying that Alice should not have gone to Switzerland in company with George Vavasor. A peculiar familiarity sprang up,which, had all its circumstances been known to Mr Grey, would not have entirely satisfied him, even though no word was said which might in itself have displeased him. During the first weeks of their travelling no word was said which would have displeased him; but at last, when the time for their return was drawing nigh, when their happiness was nearly over, and that feeling of melancholy was comingon them which always pervades the last hours of any period that has been pleasant, – then words became softer than they had been, and references were made to old days, – allusions which never should have been permitted between them.
Alice had been very happy, – more happy perhaps in that she had been a joint minister with Kate to her cousin George’s idle fantasies, than she would have been hurryingabout with him as her slave. They had tacitly agreed to spoil him with comforts; and girls are always happier in spoiling some man than in being spoiled by men. And he had taken it all well, doing his despotismpleasantly, exacting much, but exacting nothing that was disagreeable. And he had been amusing always, as Alice thought without any effort. But men and women, when they show themselvesat their best, seldom do so without an effort If the object be near the heart the effort will be pleasant to him who makes it, and if it be made well, it will be hidden; but, not the less, will the effort be there. George Vavasor had on the present occasion done his very best to please his cousin.
They were sitting at Basle one evening in the balcony of the big hotel 5 which overlooks the Rhine.The
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