repeated, “Ah, is that Mount Mansfield ?" It sufficed for me, God knows, to be admitted near the person of the great autocrat of New England, while under skies so fair and radiant he gave audience to his imposing and splendid retinue of mountains.

| abed sick, and said, 'There is going to be the devil to pay, so I guess I'll make everything snug.'

"By nine in the evening the wind had increased to one hundred miles an hour, with heavy sleet. At midnight the velocity of the storm was one hundred and twenty miles, and the exposed thermometer recorded twenty-four degrees below zero. With the stove red, we could hardly get it above freezing inside the house. Water froze within three feet of the firein fact, where you are now sitting.

"At this time the noise outside was

It

The

I consider this first introduction to what the peak of Mount Washington looks down upon an epoch in any man's life. I saw the whole noble company of mountains from highest to lowest. I saw the deep depressions through which the Connecticut, the Merrimac, the Saco, and the Androscoggin wind toward the low-deafening. About one o'clock the wind lands. I saw the lakes which nurse the rose to one hundred and fifty miles. infant tributaries of these streams. I saw was now blowing a hurricane. the great Northern forests, the notched wind, gathering up all the loose ice of the wall of the Green Mountains, the wide mountain, dashed it against the house expanse of level land, flat and heavy like with one continued roar. I lay wonderthe ocean, and finally the ocean itself. ing how long the building would stand And all this was mingled in one mighty this, when all at once came a crash. M-- shouted to me to get up; but I had tumbled out in a hurry on hearing the glass go. You see, I was dressed, to keep myself warm, in bed.

scene.

While looking down from this eagle's nest upon the southern peaks to where the bridle-path could be distinctly traced across the plateau, and still winding on around the peaked crest of Monroe, my eye caught the sparkle of water underneath this mountain.

What a sight for the rock-wearied eye was this little alpine tarn, this Lake of the Clouds, cuddled close to the hairy breast of the granite peak! On the instant the prevailing gloom was lighted, as if by magic, by this dainty nursling of the clouds, which seemed innocently smiling in the face of the hideous mountain. And the stooping monster seemed to regard the little waif, lying there in its rocky cradle, with astonishment, and to forego his first impulse to strangle it where it lay. Lion and lamb were lying down together.

Noticing that the sides of the summit were strewed with boards, beams, and débris of all sorts, my guide explained that what I saw was the result of the great January gale, which had demolished the large shed used as an engine-house, scattering the loose fragments far and wide. I begged him to give me his recollection

of it.

During the forenoon preceding the gale we observed nothing very unusual; but the clouds kept sinking and sinking until the summit was quite above them. Late in the afternoon my comrade, Sergeant M, came to where I was lying

"Our united efforts were hardly equal to closing the storm shutters from the inside, but we finally succeeded, though the lights went out when the wind came in, and we worked in the dark.”

He rose to show me how the shutters, of thick oak, were first secured by an iron bar, and secondly by strong wooden buttons firmly screwed in the windowframe.

"We had scarcely done this," resumed Doyle, "and were shivering over the fire, when a heavy grist of wind again burst open the shutters, as easily as if they had never been fastened at all. We sprang to our feet.

After a hard tussle we again secured the windows, by nailing a cleat to the floor, against which one end of a board was fixed, using the other end as a lever. You understand?" I nodded. "Well, even then it was all we could do to force the shutters back into place. But we did it. We had to do it.

The rest of the night was passed in momentary expectation that the building would be blown into Tuckerman's, and we with it. At four in the morning the wind registered one hundred and eightysix miles. It had shifted then from east to northeast. From this time it steadily fell to ten miles, at nine o'clock. This was the biggest blow ever experienced on the mountain."

The life she was leaving be

hind her had filled her æsthetic nature, and the one to which she was coming could only have as its greatest merit, in her eyes, novelty.

So unaffected is the life at Rideau | ioned home. Hall that it shows almost a republican simplicity when compared with the ceremony and parade kept up in many of the great country houses in England. No court etiquette is observed, and only the rules of good manners are adhered to. It is the very evident desire of the Governor-General and Princess to make all those who enter their home feel welcome and at their ease. The public sees very little beyond the usual formalities surrounding the two chief personages of the Dominion. Their home life is jealously guarded from the world.

I often think, when I see the flag which always floats over Rideau Hall when the Princess is there, what a change has come into her life. "Piccadilly and green pastures"-London and Ottawa. Brilliancy, art, culture, and caste-and a crude little city, struggling in the chaos of newness and the doubt of permanency. And I fall to wondering what her feelings were that bleak November day, when she drove, just at night-fall, under the dripping and leafless trees, up to the door of Rideau Hall. Velvet lawns had been exchanged for a soaked meadow turf, and a palace for a comfortable, roomy, old-fash

It would not be very strange if she were not happy here, for if we look back over the two years she has spent with us, enough has happened to associate sorrow with Canada. The death of her favorite sister, the Princess Alice, which followed closely her coming, filled the first months of her stay with grief. Of course she was surrounded with an atmosphere of sympathy, but, after all, she was separated from those who felt the grief in all its bitterness with her. But even this was only allowed to very briefly interrupt the gayeties at the Government House. She assumed these duties, and bravely performed them in spite of the mourning of which her face attested the sincerity. Then came the shocking accident which almost cost her her life, and which has left her in a state against which a continual struggle must be made to prevent her sinking into confirmed invalidism. late she has been trying the effect of travel. During her absence Lord Lorne has to a great extent supported her rôle as

Of

chiefs of departments take the lead.

has not had as free access there as former- | service in society, and amongst these the ly. In Lady Dufferin's time the doors swung open easily and often. Of course then, as now, there was always the intimate circle of friends. This, Lady Dufferin chose from Ottawa society. Now it is chosen from England, and comprises the ladies of her household and transient guests. These, almost without an exception, have been artists. Amongst these has been the gifted Miss Montalba, who is making such an enviable reputation in England, and, indeed, throughout Europe. She left as a souvenir of her visit a bust of Lord Lorne, which is strong and masterly. It has been put into bronze, and now stands in the main corridor.

To enjoy the hospitalities of Rideau Hall-that is, to get your name upon the lists-you must go and register your name in one book for the Princess Louise, and in another for the Governor-General, and you will do well to leave a separate card for each lady and gentleman making up the Governor's family. In acknowledgment of this civility, you will have your call returned by card by those for whom you have left yours, and from the Marquis and Marchioness of Lorne you will receive invitations to the various entertainments as they occur.

These entertainments have one pecul