There Were A Great Many Flies
In The Hotel, And If I Could Remember Its Name I Would Warn The Public
Against It.
After lunch our guide lapsed again to our conductor and reappeared with
his motor-bus and took us to the station, where he overcame the scruples
of the lady in the ticket-office concerning our wish to return to Madrid
by the Sud-Express instead of the ordinary train.
The trouble was about
the supplementary fare which we easily paid on board; in fact, there is
never any difficulty in paying a supplementary fare in Spain; the
authorities meet you quite half-way. But we were nervous because we had
already suffered from the delays of people at the last hotel where our
motor-bus stopped to take up passengers; they lingered so long over
lunch that we were sure we should miss the Sud-Express, and we did not
see how we could live in Escorial till the way-train started; yet for
all their delays we reached the station in time and more. The train
seemed strangely reduced in the number of its cars, but we confidently
started with others to board the nearest of them; there we were waved
violently away, and bidden get into the dining-car at the rear of the
train. In some dudgeon we obeyed, but we were glad to get away from
Escorial on any terms, and the dining-car was not bad, though it had a
somewhat disheveled air. We could only suppose that all the places in
the two other cars were taken, and we resigned ourselves to choosing the
least coffee-stained of the coffee-stained tables and ordered more
coffee at it. The waiter brought it as promptly as the conductor
collected our supplementary fare; he even made a feint of removing the
stains from our table-cloth with a flourish of his napkin, and then he
left us to our conjectures and reflections till he came for his pay and
his fee just before we ran into Madrid.
VI
The mystery persisted and it was only when our train paused in the
station that it was solved. There, as we got out of our car, we
perceived that a broad red velvet carpet was laid from the car in front
into the station; a red carpet such as is used to keep the feet of
distinguished persons from their native earth the world over, but more
especially in Europe. Along this carpet were loosely grouped a number of
solemnly smiling gentlemen in frock-coats with their top-hats genteelly
resting in the hollows of their left arms, and without and beyond the
station in the space usually filled by closed and open cabs was a swarm
of automobiles. Then while our spirits were keyed to the highest pitch,
the Queen of Spain descended from the train, wearing a long black satin
cloak and a large black hat, very blond and beautiful beyond the report
of her pictures.
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