“If that is so,” said I, “I shall make myself clear. I am a common priest from Sera studying dialects in the university department.”
“Your looks belie you,” said he. “From your circumstance and clothes, I conjecture that you are either a high clergyman, or an incarnation of the Lama.”
“You may take me for such,” said I, “entirely at your own convenience; but I am not what you think. The truth of what I say will be plain if you enquire about me at my convent.”
“Really?” said the inn-keeper, and withdrew, followed by the servant; the house was small, and their conversation in the room opposite could be distinctly heard.
“Your master has told me this and that,” said the inn-keeper, “yet I want to know his true status, otherwise it will be impossible for him to get out of this place for ten or twenty days.”
“But,” replied the servant, “I cannot tell you without making him angry.”
“In that case I shall do nothing more,” said the inn-keeper, “for a month.”
“He is in great haste,” replied the servant, “and he seems to have some pressing business. We have travelled the whole night through.”
“Is it not strange,” said the inn-keeper, talking very quickly, “that he should travel the whole night through? I don’t know what kind of business he has; but at any rate he is not a common priest; who is he?”