That afternoon we had planned taking our tea on the terrace for
the advantage of looking at the sunset light on the mountains, but
suddenly great black clouds blotted it out. Then we lost courage; it
appeared to us that it would be both brighter and, warmer by the sea
and that near Gibraltar we could more effectually prevent our steamer
from getting away to New York without us. We called for our bill, and
after luncheon the head waiter who brought it said that the large black
cat which had just made friends with us always woke him if he slept late
in the morning and followed him into the town like a dog when he walked
there.
It was hard to part with a cat like that, but it was hard to part with
anything in Ronda. Yet we made the break, and instead of ruining over
the precipitous face of the rock where the city stands, as we might have
expected, we glided smoothly down the long grade into the storm-swept
lowlands sloping to the sea. They grew more fertile as we descended and
after we had left a mountain valley where the mist hung grayest and
chillest, we suddenly burst into a region of mellow fruitfulness, where
the haze was all luminous, and where the oranges hung gold and green
upon the trees, and the women brought grapes and peaches and apples to
the train.
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