She was very wealthy, and owned as many as three strongholds in the petty principality of Hohenphalia.
Capricious indeed must have been the woman who was ready to relinquish them for freedom.
The innkeeper was a pleasant, ruddy-cheeked old man, who had seen service.

He greeted me with some surprise; tourists, he said, seldom made this forgotten, out-of-the-way village an objective point.

I received a room which commanded a fine view of the river and a stretch of the broad highway.

I was the only guest.

This very loneliness pleased me.