most beautiful they had ever seen or dreamt of; and the party, after su

w them; the sight of the Pyramids of Egypt, worth a pilgrimage thither, and all the other known wonders of the earth, natural and artificial

hours than they ought to have done, owing to the break-down of their nondescript vehicle, called a char-à-banc, jus

est riser among them-and he not until the sun was up-rushing to his wind

d by the unusual apparition of a gentleman exhibiting himself at the open window in his costume de nuit, his tasseled nightcap stretching a yard into the air. B

aks of gold, rising to a sky more deeply blue than we ever see it in England, glittering along as far as the eye could reach.

oad was sufficiently exciting, and to some minds sufficiently dangerous, to keep away ennui. The young girl, too, and indeed she was little more, was perpetually throwing them into a state of agitation with her sudden screams of terror, although the guides, with their Alpenstocks, seeing her fears, were more attentive to her than to all the rest of them put together. Once they thought she had certainly gone over, mule and all: it was when a descending party a

the gazers observed, could have no rival in nature. It was one of the sunniest days, too, that ever rose on tha

ver yet rested on. Pinnacles of snow rose up to the heavens, and frozen torrents, arrested midway in their course, hung over the waves of ice below. Plains, plains of ice, were extended there, clear and transparent; masses of white, shining snow, in all fanciful shapes, were crowded, as if they were rocks, one above another, and magnificent pinnacles, or aiguilles, as they are appropriately termed, raised their golden tops to the dark blue sky, numbers of them upon numbers, as far away in the distance as the eye could reach. It is impossib

n Rayner's geographical master at school expounded to him the dreamy, repellant attributes of the Icy Sea, making him shiver as he listened, he little thought there

And-strange, strange scene! in the midst of this region of petrifaction, this enduring ice of ages, the green banks, verdant as our plains in the spring-time, lay on the edge of t

him, conspicuous at the first glance. But he was forgotten when his companion, whom he had assisted from her mule and placed upon his arm, turned her countenance to their view. Seldom has a human face been formed so classically faultless, and though there was not the slightest coloring in her features, the delicate beauty of their form was such, that could a painter have transferred them to canvas, he would need to toil for fame no more. Her hair was of the deepest shade, next to black, and her eyes were blue, but such a blue-dark and lovely as were the edges of the masses of ice she was looking at. They did not advance toward our party, pr

irst "wonder" an Englishwoman expresses, and that invar

e how many stains she could count upon her bonnet, and who, since she crossed the chann

d excitement; and not sorry were they, after their perpendic

t, bargaining with some little children for the minerals they so anxiously displayed, when the same couple they had seen the day before, amid the glaciers, advanced toward them, but this time quite unattended. The gentleman was attired in a sor

fall a gold pencil-case, probably out of the book. It was unperceived by him, and he continued his way, the pencil-c

extremely prepossessing in his manner when he spoke, and in his smile als

cried John's good aunt, who h

man to boot,

il-case was engraved an elaborate coat-of

ad owned a real countess for a godmother, and still boasted of a cousin-she did not say how many removes-in an embassador's lady, had, as a matter of course, all the peerage at her fingers' ends, and kne

n, with the wooden leg: he is something at the Admiralty. An exceedingly fine young man is Viscount L--, but so was his father before him

er to speak, "the party we saw this morning is just as much like Lord L-- as you

demanded the lady, vexed at finding herself

as the reply, as the speaker t

ed John Rayner. "We have seen the last of them, and t

the heights, amid the trees, the rocks, and the green, green banks. And further on, as the char-à-banc continued its way out of the valley, the snowy range of mountains appeared, their outline sharply cut agai