Sure enough! From the window I beheld them. They already were disembarking.
"Where's Thusis!" I exclaimed. "This is the limit. It's—it's a confounded nuisance."
"Better go below, mine host," said Smith, resuming his recumbent attitude on his bed and opening his book. He puffed at his pipe, swatted a fly with a paper-knife, and looked at me.
"Mine host," he said, "you should greet your guests on the doorstep wearing a napkin over one arm."
I turned on my heel and went out, and met Thusis in the hallway.
"What the dickens is all this?" I demanded. "Have those tourists the impudence to come here and ask for accommodations in my house?"
She seemed surprised and also I thought a trifle excited.
"But, Monsieur, was it not understood?"
"Oh, yes, of course it was understood because the idiotic Swiss law must be obeyed," said I, gnawing my lip in vexation. "What do they want—these tourists? Tea?"
"I think," said Thusis, "they intend to stay."