The women remain at home except when they go to
church or to drive in the Delicias--that is to say, the women of
society, of the nobility. There is no society in our sense among people
of the middle classes; the men when they are not at business are at the
cafe; the women when they are not at mass are at home. That is what we
were told, and yet at a moving-picture show we saw many women of the
middle as well as the lower classes. The frequent holidays afford them
an outlet, and indoors they constantly see their friends and kindred at
their _tertulias._
The land is in large holdings which are managed by the factors or agents
of the noble proprietors. These, when they are not at Madrid, are to be
found at their clubs, where their business men bring them papers to be
signed, often unread. This sounds a little romantic, and perhaps it is
not true. Some gentlemen take a great interest in the bull-feasts and
breed the bulls and cultivate the bull-fighters; what other esthetic
interests they have I do not know. All classes are said to be of an
Oriental philosophy of life; they hold that the English striving and
running to and fro and seeing strange countries comes in the end to the
same thing as sitting still; and why should they bother? There is
something in that, but one may sit still too much; the Spanish ladies,
as I many times heard, do overdo it.
Pages:
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365