"I will go and get my valise," I said,
"for I ought to start immediately."
"Oh, I will send that!" she exclaimed.
"No," I answered; "it does not weigh anything, and I can sling it over
my shoulder. By-the-way," I said, turning as I was about to leave the
room, "I have forgotten something." I put my hand into my pocket; it
would not do to forget that I was, after all, only a departing guest.
"No, no," she replied, quickly, "I am your debtor. When you find out
how much damage you have suffered, and what is to be done with the
bear, all that can be settled. You can write to me, but I will have
nothing to do with it now."
With my valise over my shoulder I returned to the hall to take leave
of my hostess. Now she seemed somewhat contrite. Fate and she had
conquered, I was going away, and she was sorry for me.
"I think it is wonderfully good of you to do all this," she said. "I
wish I could do something for you."
I would have been glad to suggest that she might ask me to come again,
and it would also have pleased me to say that I did not believe that
her husband, if he could express his opinion, would commend her
apparent inhospitality to his successor.
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