We
Made What We Could Of Other _Patios_ In The Vicinity, Especially Of One
In The Palace Across From San
Gregorio, to which the liveried porter
welcomed us, though the noble family was in residence, and allowed us to
mount
The red-carpeted staircase to a closed portal in consideration of
the peseta which he correctly foresaw. It was not a very characteristic
_patio,_ bare of flower and fountain as it was, and others more fully
appointed did not entirely satisfy us. The fact is the _patio_ is to be
seen best in Andalusia, its home, where every house is built round it,
and in summer cooled and in winter chilled by it. But if we were not
willing to wait for Seville, Valladolid did what it could; and if we saw
no house with quite the _patio_ we expected we did see the house where
Philip II. was born, unless the enterprising boy who led us to it was
mistaken; in that case we were, Ophelia-like, the more deceived.
VII
Such things do not really matter; the guide-book's object of interest is
seldom an object of human interest; you may miss it or ignore it without
real personal loss; but if we had failed of that mystic progress of the
silver car down the nave of San Pablo we should have been really if not
sensibly poorer. So we should if we had failed of the charming
experience which awaited us in our hotel at lunch-time.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 79 of 376
Words from 21460 to 21709
of 103320
