Gretchen never went from home; what could she know about time and the
distance from the Rhine valley?
Besides, while the girl stood thinking her sense of responsibility
unfolded, the sense that comes to every rational creature in a moment
that threatens danger to others; and she saw that by going back even to
consult with Gretchen she must lose many precious minutes. There was no
near road to the valley, but it would save a little to keep well behind
the inn on her downward way to Pardisla.
As Anna went along the day cleared again. The phantom-like mists drifted
aside and showed on the opposite mountain's side brilliant green Alps in
the fir-wood that reached almost to the top. The lark overhead sang
louder, and the grasshopper's metallic chirp was incessant under foot.
[Sidenote: Father must be Warned]
Anna's heart became lighter as she hurried on; surely, she thought, she
must reach Malans before her father had begun to climb the mountain. She
knew that he would have left his knapsack at Mayenfeld, and that he must
call there for it on his way home. Unless the landslip was quite recent
it seemed to her possible that some one might be aware of what had
happened, and might give her father warning; but Anna had seen that for
a good way above Malans the upward path looked all right, and it was so
perpendicular that she fancied the destruction of its upper portion
might not have been at once discovered, especially if it had occurred at
night.
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