heir domestic happiness.

"So you're agreed that we'll be host and hostess of the Chamois?"
inquired Hansei.

"I've told you already that we'd talk it over; and so you think you'll
make a good landlord?"

"Not so good a landlord as you will a landlady. That's what everybody
says; and the landlady's always the chief point. You'd be the best
landlady, for you can earn your bread with your tongue, just as the
parson does; and that'll help us to get a penny or two more for our
wine and everything else. You've got a way of looking right into
people's hearts, and can give and take, and that's the best sign that
you're made to be a landlady."

Hansei did not understand how Walpurga could still hesitate. The
highest ideal of the young mountaineer is to be an innkeeper; to supply
every one with meat and drink, and to live by the profits of it; to
give feasts and, at the same time, be the merriest one at them; to
receive money while others spend it; to have his house the rendezvous
of all, no matter how varied their pursuits and interests; to be the
helper and adviser of every one; the man with whom all keep on good
terms, who knows all that is going on, all about bargains and prices,
and who, like the lord of the manor in the olden time, receives a
profit whenever cow, or farm, or house change hands. And besides, what
others eat and drink tickles his palate, too, and he doesn't grow thin
upon it. And then, like the parson, he would derive profit from
baptisms, marriages and funerals; to say nothing of the strangers who
would come during the summer and would be obliged to pay tribute to the
landlord, because the mountains are so high and the lake so deep,
and because he allows them to see it all. Yes, an inn is like a great
lake--all the little streams that flow from the different mountain
rills concentrate there.

Walpurga stared at her husband in surprise, while she listened to his
animated and yet detailed description of the advantages of innkeeping.
She almost felt inclined to favor his plan, and thought to herself:
"Perhaps it would be the most sensible thing after all; for I'll never
feel quite at home again in the old, narrow ways of life that I once
used to lead. I've grown different, and must have something different."
Frankly and sincerely, she again assured him that she was not opposed
to the project, but that it would be well to go about it cautiously.

"And do you know what's best of all?" asked Hansei. "We're