St. Aubert was much pleased with the manly frankness,
simplicity, and keen susceptibility to the grandeur of nature, which
his new acquaintance discovered; and, indeed, he had often been heard
to say, that, without a certain simplicity of heart, this taste could
not exist in any strong degree.
The conversation was interrupted by a violent uproar without, in
which the voice of the muleteer was heard above every other sound.
Valancourt started from his seat, and went to enquire the occasion;
but the dispute continued so long afterwards, that St. Aubert went
himself, and found Michael quarrelling with the hostess, because she
had refused to let his mules lie in a little room where he and three
of her sons were to pass the night. The place was wretched enough,
but there was no other for these people to sleep in; and, with
somewhat more of delicacy than was usual among the inhabitants of
this wild tract of country, she persisted in refusing to let the
animals have the same BED-CHAMBER with her children. This was a
tender point with the muleteer; his honour was wounded when his mules
were treated with disrespect, and he would have received a blow,
perhaps, with more meekness.
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