So they went to Basle, and here it was that another kind
of letter came. It was in a strange hand, at once cramped
and fluttering, which puzzled the recipient a good deal;
it was a long time before even the signature unravelled itself.
Then he forced himself to decipher it, sentence by sentence,
with a fierce avidity. It was from General Kervick.
The next morning Thorpe astonished his young companions
by suggesting an alteration in their route. In a roundabout
and tentative fashion--in which more suspicious observers
must have detected something shamefaced--he mentioned
that he had always heard a great deal about Montreux as a
winter-resort. The fact that he called it Montroox raised
in Julia's mind a fleeting wonder from whom it could be that
he had heard so much about it, but it occurred to neither
her nor her brother to question his entire good faith.
Their uncle had displayed, hitherto, a most comforting
freedom from discrimination among European towns;
he had, indeed, assured them many times that they were
all one to him. That he should suddenly turn up now with
a favourite winter-resort of his own selection surprised
them considerably, but, upon reflection, it also pleased them.
He had humoured all their wishes with such unfailing and
bountiful kindness, that it was a delight to learn that
there was something he wanted to do.
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