CHAPTER XLVIII.
The Bill--The Two Mountains--Sheet of Water--The Afanc-Crocodile--The Afanc-Beaver--Tai Hirion--Kind Woman--Arenig Vawr--The Beam and Mote--Bala.
After breakfasting I demanded my bill.

I was curious to see how little the amount would be, for after what I had heard from the old barber the preceding evening about the utter ignorance of the landlady in making a charge, I naturally expected that I should have next to nothing to pay.
When it was brought, however, and the landlady brought it herself, I could scarcely believe my eyes.

Whether the worthy woman had lately come to a perception of the folly of undercharging, and had determined to adopt a different system; whether it was that seeing me the only guest in the house she had determined to charge for my entertainment what she usually charged for that of two or three--strange by-the-bye that I should be the only guest in a house notorious for undercharging--I know not, but certain it is the amount of the bill was far, far from the next to nothing which the old barber had led me to suppose I should have to pay, who perhaps after all had very extravagant ideas with respect to making out a bill for a Saxon.

It was, however, not a very unconscionable bill, and merely amounted to a trifle more than I had paid at Beth Gelert for somewhat better entertainment.
Having paid the bill without demur and bidden the landlady farewell, who displayed the same kind of indifferent bluntness which she had manifested the day before, I set off in the direction of the east, intending that my next stage should be Bala.

Passing through a tollgate I found myself in a kind of suburb consisting of a few cottages.