At Bobadilla, where
again we had tea with hot goat's milk in it, we changed cars, and from
that on we had the company of a Rock-Scorpion pair whose name was
beautifully Italian and whose speech was beautifully English, as the
speech of those born at Gibraltar should rightfully be.
I
It was quite dark at Ronda when our omnibus drove into the gardened
grounds of one of those admirable inns which an English company is
building in Spain, and put us down at the door of the office, where a
typical English manageress and her assistant appointed us pleasant rooms
and had fires kindled in them while we dined. There were already fires
in the pleasant reading-room, which did not diffuse a heat too great for
health but imparted to the eye a sense of warmth such as we had
experienced nowhere else in Spain. Over all was spread a quiet and
quieting British influence; outside of the office the nature of the
service was Spanish, but the character of it was English; the Spanish
waiters spoke English, and they looked English in dress and manner;
superficially the chambermaid was as English as one could have found her
in the United Kingdom, but at heart you could see she was as absolutely
and instinctively a Spanish _camerera_ as any in a hotel of Madrid or
Seville.
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