Then I left him, and as I went down the road a slight breeze came on,
and brought with it the coolness of evening.
At last the falling plateau reached an edge, many little lights
glittered below me, and I sat on a stone and looked down at the town
of Lugano. It was nearly dark. The mountains all around had lost their
mouldings, and were marked in flat silhouettes against the sky. The
new lake which had just appeared below me was bright as water is at
dusk, and far away in the north and east the high Alps still stood up
and received the large glow of evening. Everything else was full of
the coming night, and a few stars shone. Up from She town came the
distant noise of music; otherwise there was no sound. I could have
rested there a long time, letting my tired body lapse into the
advancing darkness, and catching in my spirit the inspiration of the
silence - had it not been for hunger. I knew by experience that when it
is very late one cannot be served in the eating-houses of poor men,
and I had not the money or any other. So I rose and shambled down the
steep road into the town, and there I found a square with arcades, and
in the south-eastern corner of this square just such a little tavern
as I required. Entering, therefore, and taking off my hat very low, I
said in French to a man who was sitting there with friends, and who
was the master, 'Sir, what is the least price at which you can give me
a meal?'
He said, 'What do you want?'
I answered, 'Soup, meat, vegetables, bread, and a little wine.'
He counted on his fingers, while all his friends stared respectfully
at him and me. He then gave orders, and a very young and beautiful
girl set before me as excellent a meal as I had eaten for days on
days, and he charged me but a franc and a half. He gave me also coffee
and a little cheese, and I, feeling hearty, gave threepence over for
the service, and they all very genially wished me a good-night; but
their wishes were of no value to me, for the night was terrible.
I had gone over forty miles; how much over I did not know. I should
have slept at Lugano, but my lightening purse forbade me. I thought,
'I will push on and on; after all, I have already slept, and so broken
the back of the day. I will push on till I am at the end of my tether,
then I will find a wood and sleep.' Within four miles my strength
abandoned me. I was not even so far down the lake as to have lost the
sound of the band at Lugano floating up the still water, when I was
under an imperative necessity for repose.
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