The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-02
TWO LITTLE BROWN BOOTS

1
the passage gazing meditatively at a
pair of tiny brown boots outside the
door OF bedroom No. Al. He had ar
rived at the Beau Rivage. Lucerne, the
evening before. and was on his way
downstairs to breakfast when the boots
attracted his attention.
He was good deal of a dreamer, was
Graham, and inclined to speculation
about people whom he met and to
weaving stories round any of their pc
culiartties he CHANGED to notice, and
these dainty little boots of polished
brown leather gave to the curious kink
in his imagination the promise or Z.
dainty little lady of refinement whose
acquaintance ought to be well worth
the making. He had forgotten all about
his breakfast and was lost in adm1ra-
ton of the boots when the door of No.
q opened slightly, a shapely hand and
arm peeped out. and the owner of
them reached down for her property.
Graham caught sight of a thick wisp of
dark-brown hair with golden glints in
It, of long eyelashes. and of a dimpled
cheek
He knew, of course. that it was quite
ridiculous. but still the vision of that
shapely hand and arm and the remen-
brance of those tiny boots quite spoiled
his appetite for the Swiss rolls ana
mountain honey. and caused his coffee
to get cold before he drank it.
Five minutes after. with blush that
would have done no shame to the cheek
of a youth of -and-twenty, he was
inquiring at the desk as to the identity
of the fair denizen CT No. Al.
AZ is empty, sir Mile. de Reol and
her aunt, who Cupied it, have just left
for Ahdermatt"
Graham spent a wretched afternoon,
and though he had intended staying IN
Lucerne at least a week. when evening
came the knowledge that there was 3
train which would enable him to make
the Andermatt connection and get there
that night became too much for HIM,
and so he left.
NJ L. -
three hotels and searched the registers,
he found the name for which he had
been hunting at the Krone. But Mile,
de Reol and her aunt, the Countesse de
ChalleHel, had gone on to the Fdvka,
and with a muttered exclamation at
the persistence of his i'll luck, Graham
after hasty luncheon. caught the af-
kernoon diligence and followed them.
The day had been quite warm at An.
dermatt. but on the Furka, when they
got there at about o'clock, GRAHAM
and his fellow travellers found them
Belves wrapped In heavy clouds distill-
Ing icy moisture, and were cold and
hungry. Dinner and a bed interested
Graham Fortescue more that evening
than the owner of the brown boots did.
Besides. there was but one hotel perched
up on the Furka Pass. 5000 feet above
sea level, and he had seen the dainty
boots before a bedroom door as he was
taken to his own.
He SLEPT late, for the walk to Ander-
ClOuQS
had tired him, and when he went down
to breakfast he saw that the brown
boots had disappeared. They and
their owner were not in the breakfast
room, nor were they on the stretch of
road in front of the hotel. Mile de
Reol and her aunt had gone on by the
early stage to Glestch, and there would
be no other stage until the afternoon.
walk down -
'Oh. yes: the walk down was a steep
but very pleasant one, and monsieur
would have a splendid view of the
Rhone glacier as he went"
At Gletsch he found there was but
one hotel the huge Hotel du Glacier du
Rhone. with its two hundred bedrooms
and its twentieth century comfort. He
dined there in the big dining room but
caught no glimpse of the enchantress
who, like some modern VIII -the-wisp
was leading him across the valleys and
mountains of switzerland. On his way
to bed again. however, wandering along
the passages of the great hotel he saw
her boots: not brown ones this time but
green shagreen leather yet .daintily and
mistakably her boots, before the
door of No. SO. There was another
pair of boots beside them this time
great boots with nails in them almost
q mans boots. he thought with shud-
der. The aunt's. no doubt
In the morning he had missed Mile.
de Reol and her aunt again. They had
taken private carriage on to the Grim
sci and to Meirfngen--a carriage with
six horses, and Fortescue's funds did
not permit of such a luxury.
He followed them to Melringen, how
ever, by the post. and missed them
there again. He missed them at Brienz.
wasted two days at Interlakea only 70
learn when he had hunted up their
names at every possible hotei-and
there are at least thirty first class
hotels there--that the two ladies had
gone on to Paris, and there. of course,
BILE.
He spent the evening debating what
he meant to do. and finally. although
he had to laugh at the absurdity he left
for Paris the next morning attracted
thither like the needle of a compass by
the ma gnet. AS on the evening of his
arrival Graham set slipping his after
dinner rh7 npe~-e at TIE Cafe de la
Paix, Jacques de Brimaud, a comrade