The Argosy — page 397: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

374 Letters from Majorca. large earthenware pan. The sight was pleasant, for the atmosphere was cold and creepy. It was almost dark and the whole place looked so cheerless and gloomy, that I have seldom in my life felt so depressed as during the first half hour of our stay at Miramar. The people who received us of course spoke not one word of our language, nor we of theirs. They seemed to look upon us with anger, and to resent our coming. I am persuaded now that they did nothing of the kind. Their manner was probably only astonishment at our arriving in the midst of such weather. And astonished they might well be. But the effect was the same. They stood and stared at us: two women and an old man. ‘They never moved, but might have been monuments rooted to the earth. Not pillars of salt, unfortunately, or we might have deprived them of a hand or a foot when we fell short of that commodity. Paolo unpacked and brought in the things. When he came to the hamper, he handed it to the old woman, and she now moved for the first time, and took it into deeper depths of darkness beyond this room. We trembled and followed; followed into a long refectory with bare walls and floor, and two long tables, a few chairs and benches. She lighted a lamp, which threw a pale, lurid glare around, making the darkness visible; casting ghostly shadows upon the whitewashed walls. Then she unpacked the hamper and found everything safe and unspoiled. H.C. at once | danced a sailor’s hornpipe, which I thought a very undignified and | unpoetical exhibition. The old woman opened her mouth at the forty-eight eggs, and gasped; and by a rapid mental calculation, we could see that she put us down for at least a week’s visit. When we returned to the outer room, everything had been brought in. Paolo had stabled his horses, housed his carriage, and was comfortably seated over the braize fire: trying his best to bring back his circulation. It must have been hard work. | He got up when we entered and touched his cap, evidently knowing his duty to those who travelled in barouches. ‘Then he intimated by signs that he would help to carry up the luggage. After all, then, he was well-disposed ? But we made him understand that he had done his part, and must now rest and make the most of his embers. A further bestowal of half-a-dozen cigarettes of finest Turkish tobacco, apparently made him our slave for ever. Then the old woman showed us upstairs. We had the whole place to ourselves, and a choice of rooms. Some contained two beds, some three. We felt melancholy and depressed, determined to share the same room and live or die together, and chose the largest and most comfortable that contained two beds. Everything was of the very plainest description, but we were quite content. If only this rain would cease, this cold, creepy atmosphere. But the storm beat down with as much fury as ever, and there seemed no chance of abatement. The shutters were closed, lamps lighted, and CONNIECLOOKS, (EC)