“Your master; is he in the carriage?”
“Carriage! no; on horseback.”
“Travellers?”
“To be sure, dear dame; travellers true.”
“Travellers true, without luggage, and at this time of morn! Methinks, by your looks, queer fellows, that you are travellers whom it may be wise for an honest woman not to meet.”
“What! some people have an objection, then, to a forty kreüzer piece on a sunny morning?”
So saying, Essper, in a careless manner, tossed a broad piece in the air, and made it ring on a fellow coin, as he caught it in the palm of his hand when it descended.
“Is that your master?” asked the woman.
“Ay, is it! and the prettiest piece of flesh I have seen this month, except yourself.”
“Well! if the gentleman likes bread he can sit down here,” said the woman, pointing to a bench, and throwing a sour black loaf upon the table.