After dinner the younger bachelor, who is of rather a foolhardy
temperament, and is, or rather was, very green, was seized with a desire
to immortalise himself by climbing a mountain unattended, by sleeping
out in the snow, or doing something perfectly ridiculous. So, promising
his friend he would be back again in a couple of hours (a compact which
he never intended to keep, by the way), he marched out of the hotel
already thinking himself a kind of hero. Coming back again in about
three hours and a half, he related that he had gone past Hospenthal to
some place on the old St. Gothard road, where he was suddenly stopped by
the path being so covered with snow that farther progress was absolutely
impossible. So, humbled and disappointed, he came quickly home to find
his friend in a terrible state of mind at his lengthened absence. In the
evening we had some music--for both bachelors are musical--the older
having a baritone voice, and the younger playing the piano. How cold
that night was! and how welcome was the great eider-down pillow, which
is generally such a nuisance in continental hotels.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we commenced our return
journey to Geschenen; the driver, after leaving the tunnel and the
snowdrifts, tearing down the defile at a most dangerous pace.
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