To this she assented, very dubiously, and with a constrained air, as if there were some mysterious reason why the presence of strangers was peculiarly unacceptable on that particular afternoon.

At any rate, she said when pressed, she thought there could be no harm in our entering the chalet and sitting down on a bench, where we should be sheltered from the sun.
Here accordingly we sat, more or less patiently, till the master himself appeared.

He had no welcome for us; but he was willing that we should eat some of his black bread, and try his wine.

Liotir begged for cheese, and the wife was told she might supply cheese of two kinds, and also cream, for the monsieur evidently was _malade_ and could not swallow wine.

The cream and the black bread were delicious; but still the horrors of Die hung about me, and I could only dispose of such a small amount, that Liotir waxed funny, and told me it would never do for me to die there, as there was not earth enough to scrape a grave in on the whole plain.