In fact, she began to speak again.

"I expected _you_," she said, "but not... _this_. Who is it this time? A
Frenchman, eh?"

I shook my head.

"An Englishman," I said curtly.

Her eyes opened in wonder.

"Ach, nein!" she cried--and you would have said her voice vibrated with
pleasure--"An Englishman! Ei, ei!"

If ever a human being licked its chops, that woman did.

She wagged her head and repeated to herself:

"Ei, ei !" adding, as if to explain her surprise, "he is the first we
have had.

"You brought him here, eh! But why up here? Or did der Stelze send him?"

She fired this string of questions at me without pausing for a reply.
She continued:

"I was out, but Karl told me. There was another came, too: Franz sent
him."