show herself how careful she had become.  About three o’clock she set off.  She had a fierce desire to get away from that heartless white stream and the crack of whips and the doleful pine woods, and at first she walked very quickly; but she never got away from them, for they marched with her.  It was not that day, but the next, that Grizel thought anything was marching with her.  That day her head was quite clear, and she kept her promise to herself, and as soon as she felt tired she stopped for the night at a village inn.  But when she awoke very early next morning she seemed to have forgotten that she was to travel the rest of the way by diligence; for, after a slight meal, she started off again on foot, and she was walking all day.

She passed through many villages so like each other that in time she thought they might be the same.  There was always a monster inn whence one carriage was departing as another drove up, and there was a great stone water-tank in which women drew their washing back and forward, and there was always a big yellow dog that barked fiercely and then giggled, and at the doors of painted houses children stood.  You knew they were children by their size only.  The one person she spoke to that day was a child who offered her a bunch of wild flowers.  No one was looking, and Grizel kissed her and then hurried on.

The carriage passed and repassed her.  There must have been a hundred of them, but in time they became one.  No sooner had it disappeared in dust in front of her than she heard the crack of its whip behind.

It was a glorious day of sweltering sun; but she was bewildered now, and did not open the umbrella with which she had shielded her head yesterday.  In the foreground was always the same white road, on both sides the same pine wood laughing with wild flowers, the same roaring white stream.  From somewhere near came the tinkle of cow-bells.  Far away on heights, if she looked up, were villages made of match-boxes.  She saw what were surely the same villages if she looked down; or the one was the reflection of the other, in the sky above or in the valley below.  They stood out so vividly that they might have been within arm’s reach.  They were so small that she felt she could extinguish them with her umbrella.  Near them was the detestably picturesque castle perched upon a bracket.  Everywhere was that loathly waterfall.  Here and there were squares of cultivated land that looked like door-mats flung out upon the hillsides.  The huge mountains raised their jagged heads through the snow, and were so sharp-edged that they might have been clipped out of cardboard.  The sky was blue, without a flaw; but lost clouds crawled like snakes between heaven and earth.  All day the sun scorched her, but the night was nipping cold.

From early morn till evening she climbed to get away from them, but they all marched with her.  They waited while she slept.  She woke up in an inn, and could have cried with delight because she saw nothing but bare walls.  But as soon as she reached the door, there they all were, ready for her.  An hour after she set off, she again reached that door; and she stopped at it to ask if this was the inn where she had passed the night.  Everything had turned with her.  Two squalls of sudden rain drenched her that day, and she forced her way through the first, but sought a covering from the second.