Nevertheless I Argued About Every
Item - The Bread, The Sausage, And The Beer.
Seeing that I was in
necessity, he charged me about three times their value, but I beat him
down to double, and lower than that he would not go.
Then we sat down
together at the table and ate and drank and talked of far countries;
and he would interject remarks on his honesty compared with the
wickedness of his neighbours, and I parried with illustrations of my
poverty and need, pulling out the four francs odd that remained to me,
and jingling them sorrowfully in my hand. 'With these,' I said, 'I
must reach Milan.'
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.
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