those around him, and that strange woman had treated him with
condescension, when he had strained his heart out to get her daughter to
the road safely and without pain.

His eyes rested on the level, pale line of the horizon far below him.
Down there lay all he had ever known and loved. All was changed; his
home belonged to an alien. He turned his face away. On the other side,
the distant mountains lay a mighty rampart across the sky. He wondered
if the Alps could be higher or more beautiful. A line he had been
explaining the day before to his scholars recurred to him: "Beyond those
mountains lies Italy."

Gradually it came to him that he was duller than his scholars. Those who
were the true leaders of men surmounted difficulties. Others had crossed
the mountains to find the Italy of their ambition. Why should not he?
The thought strung him up sharply, and before he knew it he was standing
upright, his face lifted to the sky, his nerves tense, his pulses
beating, and his breath coming quickly. Beyond that blue rim lay the
world. He would conquer and achieve honors and fame, and win back his
old home, and build up again his fortune, and do honor to his name. He
seized his books, and, with one more look at the heights beyond, turned
and strode swiftly along the path.

It was, perhaps, fortunate that the day had been a dull one for both
Mrs. Yorke and Alice. Alice had been confined to her lounge, and after
the first anxiety was over Mrs. Yorke had been inclined to scold her for
her carelessness and the fright she had given her. They had not agreed
about a number of matters. Alice had been talking about her adventure
until Mrs. Yorke had begun to criticise her rescuer as "a spindling
country boy."