He Apparently Had
Faith In The Landlord's Boast That He Was Going To Have A Stately Marble
Staircase To The Public Entrance To His Hotel, Which Was Presently Of
Common Stone, Rather Tipsy In Its Treads, And Much In Need Of Scrubbing.
There is as little question in my mind that he believed the carriage we
had engaged to take us next morning to the Cartuja de Miraflores would
be ready at a quarter before nine, and that he may have been
disappointed when it was not ready until a quarter after.
But it was
worth waiting for if to have a team composed of a brown mule on the
right hand and a gray horse on the left was to be desired. These animals
which nature had so differenced were equalized by art through the lavish
provision of sleigh-bells, without some strands of which no team in
Spain is properly equipped. Besides, as to his size the mule was quite
as large as the horse, and as to his tail he was much more decorative.
About two inches after this member left his body it was closely shaved
for some six inches or more, and for that space it presented the effect
of a rather large size of garden-hose; below, it swept his thighs in a
lordly switch. If anything could have added distinction to our turnout
it would have been the stiff side-whiskers of our driver: the only pair
I saw in real life after seeing them so long in pictures on boxes of
raisins and cigars.
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