The Argosy — page 397: what you’re looking at

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

Life at Gastein. 377 impossible. So long as the baths had to be taken, there was an object in view ; and it is a satisfaction to go through with an undertaking : but the baths at an end, I felt that for me Gastein would be at an end also. It has been said that I took nineteen baths, and the two last were com- parative failures. I had had enough ; as much, to quote the doctor, as the system would receive. Then I ceased. The doctor advised, nay insisted upon, a week’s absolute rest and quiet; when I proposed going away the very next morning, he threatened to put me under lock and key. So, rather than bear imprisonment, I yielded ; and he shook me vigorously by the hand, and called me a tractable patient. ‘But how do you feel?” quoth he. ‘‘ What are your sensations, now the baths have ceased ?” ‘* Not at all uncommon,” I replied, “‘as far as I can make them out. I feel very much as I did when I began; if anything, perhaps a little weaker.” ‘¢So much the better. You will be all the stronger by and by, and will derive permanent benefit from the cure. I am glad you are staying ; to-morrow is a grand day with us.” ‘For what reason?” Iasked. ‘‘ Are you going to be married ?” ‘No, no, he cried, laughing. ‘“ I am asincere admirer of the fair sex ; _ the world without the ladies would indeed be a barbarous and uncivilized State of existence ; but I have no time to prove my devotion by a mar- riage. My profession is my wife, and I assure you I often find her as much as my two hands can manage. Do you mean to say that my faithful but gossiping Marie does not post you up in all the news of the place ?” ‘“‘ For once she seems to have failed. I had no idea that to-morrow was more than any other day. What makes it so?” | ‘“‘ Well, then—but it is a very small matter after all—to-morrow is our Féte-Dieu ; and it will be celebrated with a grand procession.” —__ ‘Is that all? cried I. ‘I have seen processions without number in the large Roman Catholic towns of France and Germany, with all the gold and glitter of wealth about them; and I am heartily tired of the show.” ‘Possibly. But processions in your large towns, and here in Gastein, are very distinct things. To see the pageant winding about the moun- tains : the girls in white ; the priests in their gay vestments ; the gor- geous banners swaying in the wind; the glittering etceteras: 1s an object unusual and picturesque. Should to-morrow prove a fine day, you ought not to miss it.” | The morrow dawned bright and glowing. At ten o'clock a gun was fired from a cliff in one of the rocks, and the sound went echoing through hill and vale. The procession was on the move ; and; during the whole ceremony the gun continued to be discharged at intervals. COMicOoOGokKS. Com y