THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 157 



Arrived in Chilian we were in a decent hotel 

 enough, indeed much more comfortable in many re- 

 spects than you would find travelling in out-of-the- 

 way places at home. The picturesque repays me for a 

 great deal of discomfort, and here the general aspect 

 is effective. For instance, the hotels and indeed all 

 the houses are built around patios — open square 

 courts with a gallery all around on which the cham- 

 bers open. The street side of the patio has a large hall 

 through which you pass into the patio and on either 

 side of which are usually the drawing-rooms or salons 

 fronting on the street. Our hotel in Chilian was such a 

 house, and there we dined very cosily, we three around 

 a little table, our funny, frisky, fat landlord, Gascon 

 French by birth, as he told us, dashing in and out au 

 desespoir because we were dining ill, or rejoui because 

 we expressed ourselves satisfied. He seemed exactly 

 like excitable surly landlords on the stage. Steindach- 

 ner is a great comfort to me as a travelling com- 

 panion. He's just like a woman in some respects, en- 

 joys going prowling about in strange places, into the 

 churches or into the private gardens. We see a house 

 door standing open (they all do stand open here), giv- 

 ing a fascinating view into a patio within planted 

 with flowers and trees, sometimes with grape trel- 

 lises. We walk in; the Senhora appears. Steindach- 

 ner: "Pardon, Senhorita, but we are strangers walk- 

 ing, and your garden looks so charming, so inviting, we 

 ventured in," etc., etc. 



Of course the Senhora asks us to come in, often 

 gives us flowers and is full of an amiable curiosity 



