"You've a good house here, mother, though it wants a splash of paint," said I. "Do you live all alone in it with your daughter?" For Max was dead and Johann abroad, and the old woman had, as far as I knew, no other children.
"Sometimes, sometimes not," said she. "I let lodgings to single men when I can."
"Full now?"
"Not a soul, worse luck, my lord."
Then I shot an arrow at a venture.
"The man who came in just now, then, was he only a customer?"
"I wish a customer had come in, but there has been nobody," she replied in surprised tones.
I looked full in her eyes; she met mine with a blinking imperturbability. There is no face so inscrutable as a clever old woman's when she is on her guard. And her fat body barred the entrance; I could not so much as see inside, while the window, choked full with pigs' trotters and such -like dainties, helped me very little. If the fox were there, he had got to earth and I could not dig him out.
At this moment I saw James approaching hurriedly. He was looking up the street, no doubt seeking my carriage and chafing at its delay. An instant later he saw me.
"My lord," he said, "your train will be ready in five minutes; if it doesn't start
