The Argosy — page 241: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

At Gastetn. 225 matters, which his own ingenuity had constructed. I soon made up my mind that only here would I stay as long as we remained in Gastein- Everything was so home-like, so clean to a fault, so comfortable and cheerful, that all I had yet seen passed out of mind. From the windows the look-out was wild and grand. In the hollow was Gastein ; we looked down upon Straubinger’s as from a great height ; here it was possible to enjoy a view of the waterfall: not so far off that no sound could penetrate, we were just at that distance where it became soothing rather than otherwise, and at night would induce sleep. On all sides the mountains reared their heads, green or barren, or partially covered with fast-melting snows. As days went on the move proved a wise one. No place could have been pleasanter. Everything the doctor possessed was placed at the disposal of his inmates. As for Marie, the housekeeper, she certainly must have owned the kindest heart in the world, and morning, noon, and night, for nearly a month, never relaxed her attentions. Not that she was in any way obtrusive ; for, like many of her class in the Tyrol, there was a delicacy of feeling about her, and, it may be added, a certain amount of refinement, which invariably prevented her from going too far in her endeavours. Many were the gossips with Marie. She was quick and intelligent ; had travelled about a good deal with the doctor, and had made use of her eyes and head. , It was a pleasure to bid farewell to Straubinger’s, the Bismarck rooms, and the roaring waterfall. Straubinger himself I had never seen, though I one day fruitlessly endeavoured to gain audience with the renowned maitre. I subsequently learned that you mht ask for him fifty times before he would come to you. In Gastein he is a great man ; magistrate, betimes mayor, butcher, and general adjudicator of all questions, public and domestic. Once upon a time a gentleman, think- ing his bill at the hotel very much overcharged, requested to see a magistrate, and forthwith was ushered into the presence of Herr Strau- binger himself. It will easily be imagined how he fared in the sequel. The very day of removal from the hotel to the doctor's, down came the long-looked for rain. It lasted some hours, and what a change in the atmosphere and all vegetation when all was over! Everything until then had appeared dried up and sunburnt. The trees were drooping, the flowers hung down, the forget-me-nots, which here grow in wild profu- sion, were at death’s door.« Now, in the course of a few hours, all had brightened, freshened into new life and vigour. The air was cool; and as night drew on, it became colder than was agreeable. ‘“‘ Now you have the true Gastein air,” cried the doctor, coming up to pay his evening visit. ‘Am I not mght in saying that in summer it is the coolest place in Europe?” “Tt is almost too much the other way,” I replied: “As cold as before it was hot. Are you subject to these extremes ?” VOL. XV. [email protected]