Kind words of
"Liebe Frau," and assurances that were meant to be cheering passed
around her, but she heard them not. Some brandy had, it seemed, been
poured into their mouths. They thought Jock had swallowed, Armine
had not.
At intervals on the way back a little more was administered, and the
experienced guides had no doubt that life was yet in him. When they
reached the hotel the guides would not take them near the stove, but
carried them up at once by the rough stair to the little wood-
partitioned bedrooms. There were two beds in each room, and their
mother would have had them both together; but the traveller, and the
kindly, helpful young landlady, Fraulein Rosalie, quietly managed
otherwise, and when Johnny tried to enforce his aunt's orders, Mr.
Graham, by a sign, made him comprehend why they had thus arranged,
filling him with blank dismay.
A doctor? The guides shook their heads. They could hardly make
their way to Leukerbad while it was snowing as at present, and if
they had done so, no doctor could come back with them. Moreover the
restoratives were known to the mountaineers as well as to the doctors
themselves, and these were vigorously applied. All the resources of
the little way-side house were put in requisition. Mr.
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