ou as
you enter, beside which are arranged, in the old style of our English
coffee-rooms, as many deal tables, with benches ranged along three
sides of each, and a few chairs covering the other. These leave about
half the width of the room free; a portion of which is, however,
engrossed by a large temporary closet, while the stove, in the present
instance a very capacious machine of the sort, occupies as much more.
For there is no visible fire-place any where, and all the cooking that
goes forward is conducted at the stove,--or, as the Germans
appropriately call it, the oven. Then, again, there is a bench fastened
to the side of the oven, where in winter, the wet, and cold, and weary
may rest; while finally, at the head of the apartment is a small table,
whereon the landlady, almost always one of the inmates of the hall,
plies her needle-work and eats her meals.

The hall or coffee-room, when we first looked in, was well nigh empty.
One woman, whom we now discovered to be our hostess, was, indeed,
sewing at her own table, while another seemed busy in the pantry, but
of guests there were only three,--two, manifestly travellers of an
humble class; the third, who sat apart with a large glass of beer
before him, more deserving of notice. His age might be about sixty. His
hair was grizzled; his face, and especially his nose, large and
rubicund, and his belly portly. He wore a black frock and dingy white
neckcloth; and he made no use of a pipe. All this we noticed while
advancing towards the hostess, who, as usual, looked cold upon us for
an instant, and then became our sworn ally. Indeed, I do not know that
I am justified in laying to that kind creature's charge even a moment's
ill-humour; for no sooner had I asked her whether she spoke French or
English, than she clasped her hands together, and burst into a laugh,
after which her sole anxiety seemed to be lest she should not succeed
in making us sufficiently comfortable. But in that she was mistaken. A
nicer quarter, in spite of the total absence from it of all approaches
to elegance, I never desire to occupy; for all that might be wanting to
our fastidious tastes, the real and unaffected kindness of the inmates
more than made good.

An apartment was provided for us forthwith; water and other conveniences
for dressing were supplied, and supper was ordered. Moreover we were
given to understand that the fierce-looking personages whose bearing
had impressed us with so much a