Louise Closser Hale

“ One will notice that they do this when a car goes up a pass. Not that they think there is any danger, or that they care, but it delicately compliments the guests who suggest that they are attempting a risky thing with so much courage. We put on brave faces and pressed forward, as conscious as they that the grades in the Alps are seldom as steep as those of the hills in America, and that the roadbed is infinitely better.
Half-way up the pass slouchy Italian officers, humming their war song, "Tripoli," returned to us the modest sum that bonds an automobile into their country ”

“ Yet Rabby's experience in Venetian cabs was not all that she had hoped for. One cannot define the "hoping" more fully, but no girl is born into the world without an intuitive appreciation of the romantic possibilities of this method of transit. She was a modern young woman—eager to fill her diary with experiences that would read well when she returned home—and we put down her failure not to any lack of initiative on her part, but to the select circle of austere young men that limited our acquaintance in Venice last year. ”

“ Ah, things have come to a pretty pass!"
Innsbruck held on to us as long as it could, although the Illustrator had endeavored to propitiate it by drawing the House of Gold, as one who made offerings to the golden calf. At the edge of the town, en route for Landeck, we acquired a puncture; then a crowd, among them a gentleman in uniform, who put his sword on the front seat and assisted us ably. When the time came for us to resume our coats and kick the jack free, we, as usual, suffered from the fear of insulting the gallant officer by the offer of money. ”

“ I am a cautious woman, financially speaking. I would have raised no objections to any expenditure of the Illustrator's physical or spiritual strength in gaining a peak, but gasolene is a luxury in Europe, and by August there is nothing more sickly than a letter of credit.
I spoke of these things, but Venice was hot, and, besides, there undeniably was our guest, Arabella. She was "Rabby" for short, which describes her more perfectly. That is, it gave both Arabella and ourselves less to live up to. ”

“ To judge by the continual starting off of motor-buses throughout the Tyrol, it is difficult believing that the traveler stays longer than a meal, or that he sleeps anywhere. But those who entered the dining-room had the New Jersey hotel manner which is gained only by a weekly rate. ”

“ Three Austrian officers near by, one dachshund (apparently) , and two ladies with the Illustrator "made to laugh." He glared at the officers. "It is only among the German countries that one jeers at the errors of strangers," he safely reproved in English. "If this girl could speak Italian I would have no trouble.
It is common belief that one speaks very well the language of the country he has just left. When in the Tyrol the mistake lies in dwelling insistently upon this accomplishment, for those who come and go across the border have both tongues at their command. ”

“ The Illustrator was busy with his maps blocking out the northern trail, and Rabby was looking at him regretfully.
"Beyond the Alps lies Italy," she quoted.
"Beyond the Stelvio Pass lies Italy," amended the Illustrator, "the highest carriage road in Europe." He paused, and eyed me as though I had stolen his happiness. "The highest carriage-road in Europe," he repeated.
Their sighs blew me through the door and up the gentle little street. A motor coming up from the south passed me; it bore a Stelvio banner. It would soon be neighboring with our car—soon boasting. But the money! ”

“ The Illustrator, agreeing with the maître d'hotel (he was a Frenchman) that men could see too much of their wives, caught my eye, and went out to put water in his engine without finishing his prune Kuchen. Still we went on, as husbands and wives do, and he "ate up" the Pordoi Pass, and, very humbly, his words in the course of the afternoon.
Eating up passes was the Illustrator's expression, not mine. I would have said that they ate us up. Even by squinting one cannot turn a gallon of gasolene into a quart as it is being poured into the tank. There is no perspective. ”

“ I use the word not merrily, but solemnly, for it was necessary to deposit four hundred dollars in gold at the Austrian frontier as a bond for our motor-car before we could enter the country, and wherever gold coin could be hidden upon the three of us, there lay the treasure. The Illustrator carried his share easily, as though accustomed to large sums. He was very happy. At Mestre he would meet his automobile once more, and before nightfall he would be at the foot of the mountains, ready for the first pass. ”

“ They maintained a standard. The Illustrator, who had never troubled much about standards in his own youth, longed to gondola past them as an object-lesson, with Arabella by his side, and I would generously have loaned him, had not the girl—with the hideous frankness of her years—assured us that she would as soon go out rowing with her grandfather. She always called it rowing.
The moon was at its roundest on the night that we settled definitely upon going north by the Austrian Tyrol, "quickly, coolly, and cheaply," as the Illustrator attractively phrased it. ”

“ Sterzing was half-way up the Brenner Pass. When I had asked if we could avoid this stiff ascent I had been told that if we did I could not see the quaint hotel and the landlord who played billiards. He was not much of a landlord to look at, after all. And he did not recognize the Illustrator, who had come this great way to meet him again. He was a small man with large rooms, and would not show us the less expensive ones until we had threatened to leave. ”

“ Nature has been referred to as a lavish creature, but her tints are pale as compared to the glowing replicas on the cartes postales.
"Madame, where is the red on your cheeks?" So Bonaparte once admonished a court lady, accustomed as he was to Josephine's rouge- pots. ”