There were hundreds of carriages,
fully half of them private, with coachmen and footmen in livery. With
them it seemed to be the rule to stop in the circle at a turning-point a
mile off and watch the going and coming. It was a serious spectacle, but
not solemn, and it had its reliefs, its high-lights. It was always
pleasant to see three Spanish ladies on a carriage seat, the middle one
protruding because of their common bulk, and oftener in umbrella-wide
hats with towering plumes than in the charming mantilla. There were no
top-hats or other formality in the men's dress; some of them were on
horseback, and there were two women riding.
Suddenly, as if it had come up out of the ground, I perceived a tram-car
keeping abreast of the riding and walking and driving, and through all I
was agreeably aware of files of peasants bestriding their homing donkeys
on Jhe bridle-path next the tram. I confess that they interested me more
than my social equals and superiors; I should have liked to talk with
those fathers and mothers of toil, bestriding or perched on the cruppers
of their donkeys, and I should have liked especially to know what passed
in the mind of one dear little girl who sat before her father with her
bare brown legs tucked into the pockets of the pannier.
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