There were streets that crooked away
everywhere, not going anywhere, and breaking from time to time into
irregular angular spaces with a church or a convent or a nobleman's
house looking into them.
VI
The noblemen's houses often showed a severely simple facade to the
square or street, and hid their inner glories with what could have been
fancied a haughty reserve if it had not been for the frankness with
which they opened their _patios_ to the gaze of the stranger, who, when
he did not halt his carriage before them, could enjoy their hospitality
from a sidewalk sometimes eighteen inches wide. The passing tram-car
might grind him against the tall grilles which were the only barriers to
the _patios,_ but otherwise there would be nothing to spoil his
enjoyment of those marble floors and tiled walls and fountains potted
round with flowering plants. In summer he could have seen the family
life there; and people who are of such oriental seclusion otherwise will
sometimes even suffer the admiring traveler to come as well as look
within. But one who would not press their hospitality so far could
reward his forbearance by finding some of the _patios_ too new-looking,
with rather a glare from their tiles and marbles, their painted iron
pillars, and their glass roofs which the rain comes through in the
winter.
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