The smell of peat smoke and of some savoury roast floated to me from the house.
'Is that place an inn?' I asked.
'At your service,' he said politely. 'I am the landlord,Sir, and I hope you will stay the night, for to tell you the truth I have had no company for a week.'
I pulled myself up on the parapet of the bridge and filled my pipe. I began to detect an ally.
'You're young to be an innkeeper,' I said.
'My father died a year ago and left me the business.I live there with my grandmother. It's a slow job for a young man, and it wasn't my choice of profession.'