The Towns Were Far
From The Stations, Which We Reached At The Rate Of Perhaps Two Miles An
Hour As
We approached the top of the hills; and we might have got out
and walked without fear of being left
Behind by our train, which made
long stops, as if to get its breath for another climb. Before this the
sole companion of our journey, whom we decided to be a landed proprietor
coming out in his riding-gear to inspect his possessions, had left us,
but at the first station after our descent began other passengers got
in, with a captain of Civil Guards among them, very loquacious and very
courteous, and much deferred to by the rest of us. At Bobadilla, where
again we had tea with hot goat's milk in it, we changed cars, and from
that on we had the company of a Rock-Scorpion pair whose name was
beautifully Italian and whose speech was beautifully English, as the
speech of those born at Gibraltar should rightfully be.
I
It was quite dark at Ronda when our omnibus drove into the gardened
grounds of one of those admirable inns which an English company is
building in Spain, and put us down at the door of the office, where a
typical English manageress and her assistant appointed us pleasant rooms
and had fires kindled in them while we dined. There were already fires
in the pleasant reading-room, which did not diffuse a heat too great for
health but imparted to the eye a sense of warmth such as we had
experienced nowhere else in Spain.
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