A False Start 



passing the last week or so since our arrival in La Corte ; 

 for so Madrid is called. After gaping and staring about us 

 in a bewildered sort of way for a day or two, we agreed to 



go to Toledo with Mr. A • B . We caused the pre- 



tendiente^ who proves a very inefficient pretender (in fact, a 

 frightened, half-witted, chattering, melancholy impostor), to 

 inquire about the most convenient way of going. He went 

 hither and thither, and made a great to do, but could not 

 form an opinion between the advantages of the direct dili- 

 gence and the railway to Aranjuez. We selected the latter, 

 and having conveyed ourselves to the station, found that we 

 had an hour and a quarter to wait. This was an unlucky 

 start, but, by the help of conversation, we got through the 

 interregnum. 



When we reached Aranjuez, we of course made diligent 

 inquiry for the Toledo diligencia^ and learnt that it started 

 from 2i posada about three-quarters of a mile off. Hurrying 

 to secure places, we were told at the 'Posada de Santa Isabel 

 that the diligence had gone to the station. Rushing back 

 to the station, we found that the diligence had been waiting 

 there all the time, but out of sight behind some buildings, 

 and had lately started in apathetic despair of passengers, 

 quite empty, for Toledo. Its conductor had probably been 

 smoking the cigar of resignation, while he ought to have 

 been looking for travellers ; and the railway officials, of 

 whom we had inquired, had not thought fit to do his business 

 for him. 



With sundry maledictions on the way affairs are managed 

 in the Peninsula, we entered the town once more, and 

 inquired for a private conveyance ; but the charges were so 

 high, and the rate of going so slow, that it appeared to us 

 the cheapest and simplest way to pass the afternoon (which 

 had now turned out fine, after an unpromising morning) in 



292 



