On
the opposite side she soon struck into the mountain road that had been
graded and tamed and improved by the hotel management into the aspect of
a sophisticated driveway, as it swept up to the great flight of steps at
the main entrance of the big white building.
IV.
The vacant hotel, bereft of the pleasure-seeking crowds whose presence
seemed the essential condition of its existence, looked strangely
sinister in the silent golden splendor of the clearing afternoon, with
its tiers of deserted piazzas, its band-stand mute and empty, the
observatory perched above the precipice, seemingly so precarious as to
have all the effect of teetering in the wind.
Languid now, preoccupied, Lillian ascended the long flight of steps to
the piazza and paused to look out at the great spread of the landscape,
wreathed in flying mists and of a different aspect from this increase of
elevation. She had begun to stroll aimlessly along in the possession of
the seclusion she craved, when she suddenly noted the fact that the front
door stood a trifle ajar.
Pages:
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64