Cold ceremony, and, at best, mere duty, attended her whose heart sighed for tenderness and affection which she was never destined to know.

At that period, there was neither hotel nor street, and the rudest huts sheltered that simple court; but they might perhaps afford, after all, as much comfort as may at the present day be found, in cold weather, in the irreclaimably smoky rooms of the principal inn at the Eaux Chaudes.
The accommodation is much superior--at least, _out_ of the season--at the Eaux Bonnes, the situation of which is, as I before observed, infinitely more cheerful; but in hot weather it must be like an oven, closed in as the valley is with toppling mountains, which one seems almost to touch.

Rising up, and barring the way immediately at the top of the valley in which the waters spring, is the isolated mountain called _La butte du Tresor_, on the summit of which is erected a little rustic temple, doubtless the favourite resort of adventurous invalids, during their stay at the waters.

I cannot imagine the sojourn agreeable at that period to persons in health, who are led there only by curiosity; for often, while balls and parties are going on in the saloons below, some unfortunate victim of disease is being removed from the sick chambers above to his last home.

Nothing but insensibility to human suffering can allow enjoyment to exist in such a spot, under such circumstances.