"Hallo! here’s the cheese-man again!" muttered the servant. But her master motioned to her to hold her peace, for he feared to offend the traveller. The latter seated himself at a table, and ordered bread, cheese and a small glass of eau-de-vie. He was served promptly and ate his bread and cheese without speaking; but when he asked how much he owed, the landlord, who was burning to question him, stepped forward and said, courteously removing his cap:
"Do you not intend to sleep here?"
"Sleep here!" echoed the stranger; "no, that isn’t necessary; I can sleep quite as well in the fields, and it costs nothing; whereas, if I slept in your house, I should have to pay, should I not?"
"Why, that’s the custom; you understand of course that we can’t supply our——"
"Very good! very good! Have I asked you to give me anything for nothing?"
"No, monsieur, I didn’t say that; but——"
"But keep your tongue still then, and let me rest in peace."
The inn-keeper angrily replaced his cap, and the stranger took his leave, after paying his bill.
"I begin to believe that this eater of cheese is nothing but a vagrant," said the host, when he was certain that the stranger was at a safe distance. "A man who sleeps in the fields—that’s rather suspicious. I am sorry he didn’t take a room here, because then he would have had to tell me his name."
"Oh! he’s all right," said a little man who had entered the common room just as the traveller went out. "When he arrived in town he went at once to monsieur le maire, to show his papers."