'I Have Done A Foolish Thing,' Said I To Myself, 'and Have Endangered
The Success Of My Endeavour.
Nevertheless, that cannot now be
remedied, and I must eat; and as eating is best where one has friends
I will ask a meal of this woman.'
Now had they understood French I could have bargained and chosen; as
it was I had to take what they were taking, and so I sat with them as
they all came out and ate together at the little table. They had soup
and flesh, wine and bread, and as we ate we talked, not understanding
each other, and laughing heartily at our mutual ignorance. And they
charged me a franc, which brought my six francs down to five. But I,
knowing my subtle duty to the world, put down twopence more, as I
would have done anywhere else, for a _pour boire;_ and so with four
francs and eighty centimes left, and with much less than a third of my
task accomplished I rose, now drowsy with the food and wine, and
saluting them, took the road once more.
But as I left Bellinzona there was a task before me which was to bring
my poverty to the test; for you must know that my map was a bad one,
and on a very small scale, and the road from Bellinzona to Lugano has
a crook in it, and it was essential to find a short cut. So I thought
to myself, 'I will try to see a good map as cheaply as possible,' and
I slunk off to the right into a kind of main square, and there I found
a proud stationer's shop, such as would deal with rich men only, or
tourists of the coarser and less humble kind.
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