“We have come a great distance, and we cannot return without seeing you: let us in.”
“I cannot open my door at this hour of the night,” replied the voice: “return.”
“That we cannot,” replied the guide. “Call your dog, Mother Celeste, and open the door to us; you will see what a present we have brought you.”
“What present can you bring me this time of night?”
“Fifty dollars, Mother Celeste, fifty dollars.”
“I can’t open to you,” replied the voice, “I can’t open to you.”
“Say a hundred,” said the lady.
“Well, a hundred dollars,” cried the guide.
“It is very late, I do not know who you may be; I shall consider—I shall consider,” said the same voice.
“She will open now,” said the guide, “that is what she always says, she is now hiding all her things.”