house still vacant, and that it was not a very beautiful one. A young
fisherman started off barefoot to fetch the owner from his village, four
miles away. The country had to be scoured for him, so that it was long
before he showed himself.

While waiting, I went out and amused the fish in the Dordogne by pointing
a borrowed rod at them, and tempting them with the fattest house-flies I
could find; but as soon as they saw the bait they all turned their tails
to it. My angling was a complete failure. And yet there were multitudes of
fish swimming on the surface; the water seemed alive with them. I concluded
that they were observing a solemn fast.

At length the fisherman returned, looking very hot and dusty, and of course
thirsty. He was accompanied by a hard-baked man of about sixty--a peasant,
apparently, but one who had put on his best clothes in view of an important
bargain that was to be made. He had cunning little eyes, and a mouth that
seemed to have acquired from many ancestors, and from the habits of a
lifetime, a concentrated expression of rustic chicanery which told me that
no business was to be done with him without a fight.

He led the way to his house, which was on the road just above the river. I
came to terms with him for a month, after the expected fight; but it
was not until he had gone away that I began to realize that I had not
distinguished myself by my wisdom in this transaction. Even the villagers,
who are not dainty in the matter of lodging, described the house as a
_baraque_. It gave me the same impression when I saw the inside of it; but
I closed my eyes to its drawbacks, because I had taken a fancy to Beynac,
and this was the only furnished dwelling to be obtained there. I thought
all the little drawbacks belonging to it, such as the rustic hearth to cook
upon, pots with holes in them, rusty frying-pans, deficiency of crockery,