It was evident, however, that to Miss Wildmere a mountain was a _terra incognita_.

She trod uncertainly, her feet turned on loose stones that hurt her, and before the first steep ascent was passed, she panted and was glad to sit down with others, more or less exhausted.
Madge's breathing was only slightly quickened, and color was beginning to come in her usually pale face, yet she had lent a helping hand more than once.
"How easily you climb, Miss Alden!" gasped Miss Wildmere.

"Have you taken lessons ?" "Yes," she replied, smiling sweetly, "and from a master." Miss Wildmere also was beginning to discover a problem in Madge; she could not patronize, snub, or apparently touch her with shafts of satire.

The young girl treated her with cordial indifference, as one-of the guests of the house.

She appeared to be capable of enjoying herself thoroughly, with scarcely a consciousness of the belle's existence, unless, as in the present case, she was addressed.