“How handsome you are, Rudy!” said the old woman.
“Don’t flatter,” said Rudy, with a laugh; but still he was pleased.
“I must say once more,” said the old woman, “that you are very lucky.”
“Well, in that I believe you are right,” said he, as he thought of Babette.
Never had he felt such a longing for that deep valley as he now had. “They
must have returned home by this time,” said he to himself, “it is already two
days over the time which they fixed upon. I must go to Bex.”
So Rudy set out to go to Bex; and when he arrived there, he found the
miller and his daughter at home. They received him kindly, and brought him
many greetings from their friends at Interlachen. Babette did not say much.
She seemed to have become quite silent; but her eyes spoke, and that was
quite enough for Rudy. The miller had generally a great deal to talk about,
and seemed to expect that every one should listen to his jokes, and laugh at
them; for was not he the rich miller? But now he was more inclined to hear
Rudy’s adventures while hunting and travelling, and to listen to his
descriptions of the difficulties the chamois-hunter has to overcome on the
mountain-tops, or of the dangerous snow-drifts which the wind and weather
cause to cling to the edges of the rocks, or to lie in the form of a frail bridge
over the abyss beneath. The eyes of the brave Rudy sparkled as he
described the life of a hunter, or spoke of the cunning of the chamois and
their wonderful leaps; also of the powerful fohn and the rolling avalanche.
He noticed that the more he described, the more interested the miller
became, especially when he spoke of the fierce vulture and of the royal
eagle. Not far from Bex, in the canton Valais, was an eagle’s nest, more
curiously built under a high, over-hanging rock. In this nest was a young
eagle; but who would venture to take it? A young Englishman had offered
Rudy a whole handful of gold, if he would bring him the young eagle alive.
“There is a limit to everything,” was Rudy’s reply. “The eagle could not
be taken; it would be folly to attempt it.”
The wine was passed round freely, and the conversation kept up
pleasantly; but the evening seemed too short for Rudy, although it was
