ebody
to quarrel with, that you might not be always disturbed; and then you
could sit all day in the large arm-chair drinking and sleeping, and
the children would come and kiss your hand morning and evening, and
you could take them on your knee and tell them of the far-famed
Ruebezahl,[67] and if they made a noise you could scold them yourself;
and then, in after years, all the excellent mysteries of the noble art
of brewing would devolve on them, and you would leave a renowned
progeny after you; and how nice all this would be!"

[Footnote 67: The subject of an old German legend.]

Vendel's pride felt all the weight of this argument: his eye
glistened, his clenched fists were raised to his mouth, and he smiled
as complacently as a Tyrolian cheese, and sighed so deeply, that it
might have been a hurricane on Lichtenstein's estate. This poetical
turn was still more imposing than the melancholy one, but it did not
last long. Vendel's ideas were forced to descend from their airy
regions, for the door opened, and a profane figure entered, carrying
the pole of a cart as a staff, and advanced with heavy steps to the
farthest end of the long table, where he seated himself on a bench,
and grumbling out, in a tone which would have put a bear to shame,
"Wine here!" he elbowed himself out of his mantle, and pushed the long
pole behind him.

The intruder was a middle-aged man, tall and muscular; his skin was of
a dark reddish brown, and shone as if it had been rubbed with oil; his
black knotty hair was divided in the middle, and fell in matted
clusters on either side; and his beard was spiral, and twisted like a
gipsy's farewell.[68]

[Footnote 68: Gipsy's farewell--a byword, because they generally
terminate the last notes of their music by various turns and windings
of the air.]

He wore a high csalma,[69] in the top of which was stuck a red pipe;
and a large brass monogram, the initials of the lord of the domain,
was fastened on one side.

[Footnote 69: A kind of toque worn by the peasants in some districts.]

Wine was placed before him, which he swallowed in silence, only now
and then grumbling something inarticulately to himself. When he had
drunk a few glasses, he took the pipe out of his csalma, and lighting
it at the candle, leant upon one elbow and began to smoke. He seemed
upon no ceremony, and was evidently no stranger in the house. Hanzli
stood before him with his mouth open, and his hands behind his back;
and V