“No, just at present—she was very sorry—none.”
“Well, then,” I said, “it is all right. We will take the rooms.”
Good Signora Barbaria, you did not speak the American language, nor
understand those curious perversions of thought which pass among the
Americans for humour; but you understood how to make a little inn
cheerful and home-like; yours was a very simple and agreeable art of
keeping a hotel. As we sat in the balcony after supper, listening to the
capital playing of the village orchestra, and the Tyrolese songs with
which they varied their music, we thought within ourselves that we were
fortunate to have fallen upon the Star of Gold.