"If I wanted other wine, I shouldn’t have waited for your permission to order it."
"True; but——"
"But I am not so particular now!"
"Not so particular now?—Ah! I understand: that means that you used to be—eh?"
The stranger looked up at the inn-keeper, and after gazing fixedly at him for several seconds, observed:
"There is something that you used to be, still are, and probably always will be!"
Thereupon the inn-keeper fastened his little red eyes on the strange guest’s, as if trying to understand him; but, after cudgelling his brains in vain, he said:
"I don’t catch your meaning at all. Are you a fortune teller?"
The stranger shrugged his shoulders and returned to his bread and cheese, making no further reply.
"Do you expect to stay for some time in our town?" continued the inn-keeper after a moment. "I have no idea; if it amuses me to stay here, I shall stay."