To Journey Together by Mary Burchell Read Free Book Online

glittering, frosty air, Elinor realized suddenly that she was sleepy.
    "You can sleep late tomorrow," Kenneth told her, noticing her weariness. "My uncle and I have business to attend to in the morning, and our train for the Tyrol doesn't leave until midday."
    "Is it another long journey?" she enquired, trying desperately to smother a yawn.
    "Oh no. About a couple of hours to Garmisch, and then Ehrwald is not far beyond that."
    "I'm really almost glad," she admitted, as they reached the hotel. "I feel I simply must settle down and digest some of these glorious impressions before I try to take in any more. You know, Ken " She stopped, astounded at herself, blushed and added hastily, "I'm sorry. I mean Mr. Brownlow, of course. I wasn't "
    "That's all right." He gave her that quick, amused smile. "Ken or Kenneth will do. I don't think I could be Mr. Brownlow for the next few months. Good night, Elinor."
    He parted from her at the door of the lift, leaving her with the distinct impression that, on this evening at least, she had not bored him.
    The train which they took the next day was a much less luxurious affair than the express of the previous day. It was even a little primitive-looking, but with an engaging air of leisurely enjoyment about it, as though it were a rather amateur sort of train, given over to pleasure-trips more than the serious business of life.
    Most of it was composed of third-class carriages with wooden seats, and the passengers were in every variety of dress, from the neat, respectable garments of ru ral poverty to the smartest ski ing kit.
     
    The route wound through heavily wooded country—the very green grass powdered with snow, and the trees leafless against a clear, pale, sky. Occasionally there were glimpses of breathtakingly beautiful lakes, but what made Elinor cry aloud with joy was the first sight of towering mountains sketched on the far horizon.
    As they drew nearer, the track wound steeply upwards and the snow, lying lightly at first, became deeper, crisper, and finally covered everything. From Garmisch onwards they travelled through a fairyland of sparkling snow, a frozen, Christmas-card world, with fir trees bending beneath the weight of their soft, white burden, and little mountain villages, with their shining, onion-shaped church towers, clustering under the thick white carpet which would cover them now until spring came to release them.
    At the frontier the Austrian officials who came on board the train could hardly have been more friendly or casual. They made one or two jokes in their soft, beautiful German, and generally gave the impression that Customs duties were simply a game in which they had to indulge, even though it was not really much fun. And they finally departed with that most moving of all greetings and farewells—"Gruss Gott".
    The train then puffed on a little farther in a leisurely manner and presently arrived at a pretty, wooden station which looked more like a large toy than anything Elinor had ever before regarded as a station. This, it seemed, was their destination.
    A number of people got out here and among them Elinor was charmed to see the two to whom she had talked on the train the previous day.
    Not that she really had eyes or ears for mere people in those first few moments. She stood on the open platform, waiting while the luggage was slowly taken off the train, and gazed awe-stricken on the mountains which rose on every hand—their jagged summits reaching into the clear, bright blue of an exquisite winter sky. And as she did so there came to her, borne on the fresh, still air of the late after-
     
    noon, the enchanting sound of innumerable, softly tinkling cowbells.
    "Well, Miss Connelton, how do you like your first glimpse of Ehrwald?" said a pleasant, faintly foreign voice beside her, and she turned to find the Hungarian—as she still called him to herself—smiling at her.
    "It's all so wonderful, I hardly know how to take it in," she admitted. And then