The sunlight was hot and hard, and I crossed over beside some buildings, and walked back along sidestreets to the hotel.Īt dinner that night we found that Robert Cohn had taken a bath, had had a shave and a haircut and a shampoo, and something put on his hair afterward to make it stay down. I wondered if there was anything else I might pray for and I thought I would like to have some money, so I prayed that I would make a lot of money, and then I started to think how I would make it, and thinking of making money reminded me of the count, and I started wondering about where he was, and regretting I hadn't seen him since that night in Montmartre, and about something funny Brett told me about him, and as all the time I was kneeling with my forehead on the wood in front of me, and was thinking of myself as praying, I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would the next time and then I was out in the hot sun on the steps of the cathedral, and the forefingers and the thumb of my right hand were still damp, and I felt them dry in the sun. I knelt and started to pray and prayed for everybody I thought of, Brett and Mike and Bill and Robert Cohn and myself, and all the bull-fighters, separately for the ones I liked, and lumping all the rest, then I prayed for myself again, and while I was praying for myself I found I was getting sleepy, so I prayed that the bull-fights would be good, and that it would be a fine fiesta, and that we would get some fishing. It was dim and dark and the pillars went high up, and there were people praying, and it smelt of incense, and there were some wonderful big windows. The first time I ever saw it I thought the facade was ugly but I liked it now. "I knew you were in a motor-car from the way the dust was." So I gave him two copper coins.Īt the end of the street I saw the cathedral and walked up toward it. The back of the collar and the upper part of the shoulders were gray with dust. "You must have been in a motor-car," he said. He was the archivist, and all the archives of the town were in his office.Īnyway, his office had a green baize door and a big wooden door, and when I went out I left him sitting among the archives that covered all the walls, and I shut both the doors, and as I went out of the building into the street the porter stopped me to brush off my coat. I went to the Ayuntamiento and found the old gentleman who subscribes for the bull-fight tickets for me every year, and he had gotten the money I sent him from Paris and renewed my subscriptions, so that was all set. It was very hot, but I kept on the shady side of the streets and went through the market and had a good time seeing the town again. It was still closed, so he decided to go up to the hotel and get a bath, and I sat out in front of the cafe’ and then went for a walk in the town. After a while Bill went to write some letters and Cohn went over to the barber-shop. We had coffee at the Iruсa, sitting in comfortable wicker chairs looking out from the cool of the arcade at the big square. "Well, let him not get superior and Jewish." I saw Cohn coming over across the square. He's all right, I guess, but where does he get this inside stuff? Mike and Brett fixed it up with us about coming down here." "I was sorry as soon as I opened my mouth. If their money doesn't come it's a cinch they won't get in tonight."
"Say," Bill said to me, "have I got any chance on that bet?" Cohn said he was going over and get a shave. We went out to walk around under the arcade to the Cafe’ Irufla for coffee. "You'll probably win it back at bridge, anyway." "Or you'll have to make a book and give me some of it." Why should I? Make it a hundred if you like."
"It's a sure thing they'll come," I said. I saw he was angry and wanted to smooth him down. He always bets when he is angered, and so he usually bets foolishly. "I'll bet you fifty pesetas they're here to-night," Bill said. He said it with an air of superior knowledge that irritated both of us. "I rather think they're not coming," Robert Cohn said. 36 "Well," I said, "Brett and Mike ought to get in to-night."
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