IV
Suddenly, On The Way Home To Our Very English Hotel, The Air Of Ronda
Seemed Charged With English.
We were already used to the English of our
young guide, which so far as it went, went firmly
And courageously after
forethought and reflection for each sentence, but we were not quite
prepared for the English of two polite youths who lifted their hats as
they passed us and said, "Good afternoon." The general English lasted
quite overnight and far into the next day when we found several natives
prepared to try it on us in the pretty Alameda, and learned from one,
who proved to be the teacher of it in the public school, that there were
some twenty boys studying it there: heaven knows why, but the English
hotel and its success may have suggested it to them as a means of
prosperity. The students seem each prepared to guide strangers through
Ronda, but sometimes they fail of strangers. That was the case with the
pathetic young hunchback whom we met in Alameda, and who owned that he
had guided none that day. In view of this and as a prophylactic against
a course of bad luck, I made so bold as to ask if I might venture to
repair the loss of the peseta which he would otherwise have earned. He
smiled wanly, and then with the countenance of the teacher, he submitted
and thanked me in English which I can cordially recommend to strangers
knowing no Spanish.
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