The innkeeper and his wife, a gaunt, extraordinarily tall woman, served, running from table to table.

The place was all heat and noise.

Presently the soldiers, ending their meal, got up with clamor and surged from the court to their waiting horses.
After them ran the innkeeper, appealing for pay.

Denials, expostulation, anger and beseeching reached the ears of the patio, then the sound of horses going down stony ways.

"O God of the poor!" cried the gaunt woman.