"This is your son, I presume?" asked I of the landlady, pointing to my guide.
"No, sir," she replied; "he is only a poor crêtin that I have taken in out of charity, as the children are fond of him. They say in these parts that it is lucky to have an idiot in the house, so, having none in my family, I took in this poor afflicted being; though, as to being lucky, all the luck which I've known since——"
The hostess suddenly stopped in her conversation, and her face became locked and rigid without any apparent reason.
I looked in the direction of the cripple, and observed his glance fixed on the hostess. It was a glance which nearly took my breath away. No wonder the landlady paused in her conversation. It was as if he possessed the gift of the evil eye. The magnetic influence he had over her completely closed her mouth.
Curious to know whether the landlady was really under a spell, I resumed.
"And this unfortunate, besides being idiotic, is he also deaf and dumb?"
The landlady seemed to awake suddenly, as from a dream, and replied, "Alas! yes, sir; no one has ever heard him utter a sound, or even——"
Here she paused again, and again I noticed the creature's glance fixed upon her.
"It is very strange," I observed, following up the conversation, "for I myself this evening have discoursed with him by signs, and so far from being idiotic, I must say that I found him very intelligent."
"Ah, yes, sir," she rejoined; "and if you should want a guide to-morrow, you could not do better than take him. No one knows the mountains here better than he."