not only spoiled my sole chance of the bull-feast; the effect of it
in a stubborn cold forbade me the night air and kept me from testing
any of the new dramas on the stage, which is always giving new dramas in
Madrid. The stage, or rather the theater, is said to be truly a passion
with the Madrilenos, who go every night to see the whole or the part of
a play and do not mind seeing the same play constantly, as if it were
opera. They may not care to see the play so much as to be seen at it;
that happens in every country; but no doubt the plays have a charm which
did not impart itself from the printed page. The companies are reported
very good: but the reader must take this from me at second hand, as he
must take the general society fact. I only know that people ask you to
dinner at nine, and if they go to the theater afterward they cannot
well come away till toward one o'clock. It is after this hour that the
_tertulia,_ that peculiarly Spanish function, begins, but how long it
lasts or just what it is I do not know. I am able to report confidently,
however, that it is a species of _salon_ and that it is said to be
called a _tertulia_ because of the former habit in the guests, and no
doubt the hostess, of quoting the poet Tertullian. It is of various
constituents, according as it is a fashionable, a literary, or an
artistic _tertulia,_ or all three with an infusion of science. Oftenest,
I believe, it is a domestic affair and all degrees of cousinship resort
to it with brothers and sisters and uncles, who meet with the pleasant
Latin liking of frequent meetings among kindred. In some cases no doubt
it is a brilliant reunion where lively things are said; in others it
may be dull; in far the most cases it seems to be held late at night or
early in the morning.

VI

It was hard, after being shut up several days, that one must not go out
after nightfall, and if one went out by day, one must go with closed
lips and avoid all talking in the street under penalty of incurring
the dreaded pneumonia of Madrid. Except for that dreaded pneumonia,
I believe the air of Madrid is not so pestilential as it has been
reported. Public opinion is beginning to veer in favor of it, just as
the criticism which has pronounced Madrid commonplace and unpicturesque
because it is not obviously old, is now finding a charm in it peculiar
to the place. Its very modernity embodies and imparts the charm, which
will grow as the city grows in wideness