“Only $2; but it is the principle involved that I look at.”
“You rascal! if I had known that it was such a paltry sum, I would not have taken the trouble to tell you all that I have.”
Chapter VII.
HORSES AND STABLES.
Time passed, and back to the East we had come. On a certain day my wife and myself, together with a couple of friends, yclept Mr. and Mrs. De Gex, engaged a carriage and pair to take us some twenty or thirty miles into the country to see some wonderful sights—what they were is quite immaterial at this late date. A pleasant drive and charming day we had. The night we were to spend at a little village inn.
The mistress of the small establishment received us right warmly, so that a perfect glow of pleasure pervaded one’s inner man.
“Ah,” said Mrs. De Gex, who was inclined towards sentimentalism, “how true are the words of the poet!
‘Whoe’er has traveled life’s dull round,
Where’er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think that he has found
His warmest welcome at an inn.’”
The innkeeper told our driver to leave the carriage outside on the road. One of the party asked if that would be safe.
“If it is not,” I replied, “Boniface is responsible, for I remember that, in England, a man drove up to an inn on a fair day and asked the landlord if he had room for the horse, and a servant of the establishment put it into the stable, while the traveler took his coat and whip into the house, where he got some refreshment. The hostler placed the gig in the open street, (outside the inn-yard) where he was accustomed to leave the carriages of guests. The gig having been stolen, the publican was held liable.”[302]
“That seems rather hard, when, perhaps, the yard was full,” some one remarked.