It is therefore advisable to make the first offer very small, and to retain something for the backsheesh.

At length I safely reached the house of Herr Battista (the only inn in the place), and was rejoicing in the prospect of rest and refreshment, when the dismal cry of "no room" was raised.

I was thus placed in a deplorable position.
There was no second inn, no convent, no place of any kind, where I, poor desolate creature that I was, could find shelter.

This circumstance worked so much on the host's feelings, that he introduced me to his wife, and promised to procure me a private lodging.
I had now certainly a roof above my head, but yet I could get no rest, nor even command a corner where I might change my dress.

I sat with my hostess from eleven in the morning until five in the afternoon, and a miserably long time it appeared.