He Certainly Earned The Peseta I Gave Him, But He Would Have Done
Far More For It If We Had
Suffered him to take us up another flight of
stairs; and he followed us in our descent with bows and
Adieux that
ought to have left no doubt in our minds of the persistence of the
Basque _fueros._
V
It was to such a powerful embodiment of the local patriotism that our
driver had brought us from another civic palace overlooking the Plaza de
la Constitution, chiefly notable now for having been the old theater of
the bull-fights. The windows in the houses round still bear the numbers
by which they were sold to spectators as boxes; but now the municipality
has built a beautiful brand-new bull-ring in San Sebastian; and I do not
know just why we were required to inspect the interior of the edifice
overlooking this square. I only know that at sight of our bewilderment a
workman doing something to the staircase clapped his hands orientally,
and the custodian was quickly upon us in response to a form of summons
which we were to find so often used in Spain. He was not so crushingly
upon us as that other custodian; he was apologetically proud, rather
than boastfully; at times he waved his hands in deprecation, and would
have made us observe that the place was little, very little; he deplored
it like a host who wishes his possessions praised. Among the artistic
treasures of the place from which he did not excuse us there were some
pen-drawings, such as writing-masters execute without lifting the pen
from the paper, by a native of South America, probably of Basque
descent, since the Basques have done so much to people that continent.
We not only admired these, but we would not consent to any of the
custodian's deprecations, especially when it came to question of the
pretty salon in which Queen Victoria was received on her first visit to
San Sebastian.
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