The note which had been surreptitiously passed to him in Ganlook lay
crumpled and forgotten inside his coat pocket, where he had dropped it
the moment it had come into his possession, supposing that the message
contained information which had been forgotten by Franz, and was by no
means of a nature to demand immediate attention. Had he read it at once
his suspicions would have been confirmed, and it is barely possible that
he would have refused to enter the city.
Late in the afternoon the walls of Edelweiss were sighted. For the first
time he looked upon the distant housetops of the principal city of
Graustark. Up in the clouds, on the summit of the mountain peak
overlooking the city, stood the famed monastery of Saint
Valentine. Stretching up the gradual incline were the homes of citizens,
accessible only by footpaths and donkey roads. Beverly was awake and
impatient to reach the journey's end. He had proved a most disappointing
companion, polite, but with a baffling indifference that irritated her
considerably. There was a set expression of defiance in his strong,
clean-cut face, the look of a soldier advancing to meet a powerful foe.
"I do hope he'll not always act this way," she was complaining in her
thoughts. "He was so charmingly impudent out in the hills, so
deliciously human. Now he is like a clam. Yetive will think I am such a
fool if he doesn't live up to the reputation I've given him!"
"Here are the gates," he said, half to himself.
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