"Hum!" he exclaimed. "This is very dear! Seven marks and a half for a
night's lodging and two meals!"

"You forget the _skydskarl_ and the horse," remarked Hulda.

"Nevertheless, I think your charge very high. I really don't see how
you can expect to prosper if you are so exorbitant in your charges."

"You owe me nothing, sir," said Dame Hansen, in a voice that trembled
so that it was scarcely audible.

She had just opened the register and read the name inscribed upon it,
and now taking the bill and tearing it up, she repeated:

"You owe me nothing."

"That is exactly my opinion,'" replied the stranger.

And without bidding them good-bye on his departure any more than he
had bidden them good-day on his arrival, he climbed into his kariol,
and the _skydskarl_ jumped upon the board behind him. A few seconds
later he had disappeared around a turn in the road. When Hulda opened
the book she found there only this name--

"Sandgoist, from Drammen."