There Will Come A Stranger Read Online Free PDF Page B

bed of cotton wool. The world and all its turmoil seemed incredibly remote, as time and space took on new values in her mind. She murmured, “Even eternity doesn ’ t seem quite so bewildering any longer!”
    To Vivian, as always, the sight of beauty that she could no longer share with Pete smote her with renewed awareness of her loss and longing for him. But she gave no sign of what she felt.
    “I know. I always feel like that, too,” she answered. “And to think it ’ s always here—this peace and space, while we ’ re all fussing down below because the fish hasn ’ t come, or the scullery tap needs a new washer, or someone ’ s made a silly speech in Parliament!” And then, as Valerie still sat gazing spellbound, she added, “All the same, though breakfast does seem something of an anticlimax, I would eat it up if I were you, before your coffee ’ s cold!”
    Secretly Valerie felt it would be more appropriate to sing the Te Deum, but picturing the probable effect upon her fellow travellers if she were to do anything of the kind, she did as Vivian suggested, and found her appetite was unimpaired by her emotions.
    On Geneva ’ s housetops lay no more than a scattering of snow, but the mountains were a brilliant, blinding white. They understood now why the nice girl in Harridge ’ s winter sports department had been so insistent that they must be sure to take glare glasses. Their train for Varlet - sur-Montagne would leave barely an hour after their arrival, so after a quick lunch they embarked on the next stage of their journey in a funny little friendly train that bore them upwards on a single track line, now twisting spiral fashion like a corkscrew, now panting up in steep zigzags, while with every mile the powdery snow grew deeper and the countryside more like a Christmas card. Shadows began to flow in azure tides up from the valleys, driving the sunlight from the mountains. On the peaks it lingered, deepening from gold to glowing rose. Then suddenly that faded too, and by the time the little engine chuffed importantly to a standstill at their destination, stars had begun to prick the darkening sky.
    Leaving the warm, well-heated train was like diving from a sunny beach into a chilly sea. Cold made them gasp, but it was a dry, exhilarating cold, as different from the raw air they had left behind as iced champagne from cold tea. Most of their fellow passengers drove off in sleighs with bells that jingled gaily in the frosty air, drawn by horses decked with plumes, but they had been warned that these would take too much of their precious currency, so they had arranged for a porter to come from their hotel bringing a sledge to fetch their luggage, and direct them there.
    The snow crunched crisp and dry beneath their feet as they walked up a hillside; bright with lighted windows gleaming through the dusk. Five minutes ’ walking brought them to the long, two - storied building the hotel porter had pointed out, and a few minutes after that warm air rushed out to meet them through the second of the double doors by which one entered the hotel, and which were so essential to keep out the bitter cold at night.
    They found themselves in a large cheerful lounge hall, with comfortable chairs, and writing tables in the windows. Opposite the door a staircase led up to a kind of gallery encircling it on the first floor. A smiling, plump young matron, evidently the manageress, had apparently been looking out for their arrival and came at once to welcome them. She took them upstairs to a pleasant bedroom opening off the gallery, with gay rugs on the wooden floors, and roomy built-in cupboards and basins with running water. The hotel, she told them, had been burnt down in the year following the war, and rebuilt, as they saw, according to the most up-to-date ideas in comfort and convenience. There were double windows — would they please be careful not to open these during the night, as if they did there was a risk of