It seemed that the fever _was_ rising, as it might
very well be, but the middle sister was not moved from her notable calm,
and the eldest did not fear. At a place where a class of young men was
to be seen before an ecclesiastical college the girls looked out
together, and joyfully decided that the brother (or possibly a cousin)
whom they expected to see, was really there among them. When we reached
Burgos we felt that we had assisted at a drama of family medicine and
affection which was so sweet that if the fever was not very wisely it
was very winningly treated. It was not perhaps a very serious case, and
it meant a good deal of pleasant excitement for all concerned.
III
BURGOS AND THE BITTER COLD OF BURGOS
It appears to be the use in most minor cities of Spain for the best
hotel to send the worst omnibus to the station, as who should say, "Good
wine needs no bush." At Burgos we were almost alarmed by the shabbiness
of the omnibus for the hotel we had chosen through a consensus of praise
in the guide-books, and thought we must have got the wrong one. It was
indeed the wrong one, but because there is no right hotel in Burgos when
you arrive there on an afternoon of early October, and feel the
prophetic chill of that nine months of winter which is said to contrast
there with three months of hell.
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