Other neighbors who had gathered in had no apparent purpose but to
verify our outlandish presence and to hear my occasional Spanish, which
was worth hearing if for nothing but the effort it cost me. The grocer
accepted with dignity the popularity we had won him, and when at last
our cab arrived from Mount Ararat with the mire of the subsiding Deluge
encrusted upon it he led us out to it through the small boys who swarmed
upon us wherever we stopped or started in Valladolid; and whose bulk was
now much increased by the coming of that very fat woman from within the
grocery. As the morning was bright we proposed having the top opened,
but here still another convention of the place intervened. In Valladolid
it seems that no self-respecting cabman will open the top of his cab for
an hour's drive, and we could not promise to keep ours longer. The
grocer waited the result of our parley, and then he opened our carriage
door and bowed us away. It was charming; if he had a place on Sixth
Avenue I would be his customer as long as I lived in New York; and to
this moment I do not understand why I did not bargain with that blond
boy to come to America with us and be with us always.
Pages:
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102