k closed behind me, and the wood of insane olive-trunks was
passed, with what other eyes I looked upon the rich orchard-plain! It
had now become a part of one superb whole; as the background of my
mountain view, it had caught a new glory, and still wore the bloom of
the invisible sea.

In the evening I reached the Four Nations, where I was needlessly
invited to dinner by certain strangers, and dined alone, on meats cooked
in rancid oil. When the cook had dished the last course, he came into a
room adjoining the dining apartment, sat down to a piano in his white
cap, and played loud, long, and badly. The landlord had papered this
room with illustrations from all the periodicals of Europe:
dancing-girls pointed their toes under cardinals' hats, and bulls were
baited before the shrines of saints. Mixed with the woodcuts were the
landlord's own artistic productions, wonderful to behold. All the house
was proud of this room, and with reason; for there is assuredly no other
room like it in the world. A notice in four languages, written with
extraordinary flourishes, announced in the English division that
travellers will find "confortation and modest prices." The former
advantage, I discovered, consisted in the art of the landlord, the music
and oil of the cook, and the attendance of a servant so distant that it
was easier to serve myself than seek him; the latter may have been
"modest" for Palma, but in any other place they would have been
considered brazenly impertinent. I should therefore advise travellers to
try the "Three Pigeons," in the same street, rather than the Four
Nations.

The next day, under the guidance of my old friend, M. Laurens, I
wandered for several hours through the streets, peeping into
court-yards, looking over garden-walls, or idling under the trees of the
Alameda. There are no pleasant suburban places of resort, such as are to
be found in all other Spanish cities; the country commences on the other
side of the moat. Three small cafes exist, but cannot be said to
flourish, for I never saw more than one table occupied. A theatre has
been built, but is only open during the winter, of course. Some placards
on the walls, however, announced that the national (that is, Majorcan)
diversion of baiting bulls with dogs would be given in a few days.

The noblesse appear to be even haughtier than in Spain, perhaps on
account of their greater poverty; and much more of the feudal spirit
lingers among them, and g