• THE BRIDE OF DANGER r 
189 
IN H Kit MOTO R -SI. K l K ’• 1C AT CHAMONIX- 
h'rcnn n P1u)twjruph by tirttugcr. 
into strength and grace. In 1905 T carried off 
the first prize for sculling in a standing- 
position. 
“ 1 was very young* too, when T took to 
cycling. At that time the high bicycle was 
in fashion. You remember it ? A huge 
wheel on which one had to perch was the 
earliest form of bicycle which 1 remember. 
The first, time 1 saw this wonderful machine 
pass through the streets of Nancy amid the 
wonder of the crowd, I was fascinated. 
1 was, 1 believe, the first Frenchwoman to 
mount that long-disused machine. But on 
the newer form of the safety bicycle T have 
some small trips to my credit.” 
Amongst Mile. Marvingt’s “ small trips ” 
we may count that from Nancy to Milan, 
from Nancy to Toulouse, from Nancy to 
Bordeaux, and. in 1908 the tour of France, 
a terrible task for even the most expert 
cyclists, covering more than one thousand 
miles at an average of over a hundred miles 
per day. 
For this intrepid young woman, who can 
stand everything except idleness, every 
season is a season for sport. When winter 
comes and the motor-car and the bicycle 
have to be put away in the garage, and the 
canoe and the skiff are stored away in the 
boathouse. Mile. Marvingt looks over her 
skates and skis, and sets off for the kingdom 
of snow to challenge the fair English and 
Americans on the white tracks of the Alps 
and the Vosges. The celebrated Swedish pro- 
fessor Durban-Hansen looks on her as one 
of his best pupils. For three years running, 
at Chamonix in 1908, at Gerardmcr in 1909, 
at the Ballon d’Alsace in i<)io. Mile. Marvingt 
WINNING THE FIRST I'Rl/.E FOR SCUU.ING AT ETRETAT. 
pi um a Pho lograph hy 
