“But I was ready to go with you, and waited all that time for you,” pleaded the guide.
“Here is four pesetas, and that is one more than you have earned,” added Bill, tendering him the silver.
The man refused to accept the sum; and they had quite a row about it. Finally the guide appealed to the manager of the hotel, who promptly decided that six pesetas was the amount due the man. Bill paid it under protest, but added that he wanted the guide the next day.
“I shall go with you no more,” replied the man, as he put the money into his pocket. “I work for gentlemen only.”
“I will pay you for all the time you go with me,” protested Bill; but the guide was resolute, and left the hotel.
The next morning Bill used his best endeavors to obtain another guide; but for a time he was unable to make anybody comprehend what he wished. An Englishman who spoke Spanish, and was a guest at the hotel, helped him out at breakfast, and told the manager what the young man wanted.
“I will not send for a guide for him,” replied the manager; and then he explained to the tourist in what manner Bill had treated his valet the day before, all of which the gentleman translated to him.
But we cannot follow Bill in all his struggles with the language, or in all his wanderings about Valencia. He paid his bill at the hotel Villa de Madrid, and went to another. On his way he bought a new suit of clothes, and discarded for the present his uniform, which attracted attention wherever he was. He went to the Fonda del Cid next; but he could not obtain a guide who spoke English: the only one they ever called in was engaged to an English party for a week. The manager spoke English, but he was seldom in the house. In some of the shops they spoke English; but Bill was almost as much alone as though he had been on a deserted island. The days wore heavy on his hands; and about all he could do was to drink Val de Peñas, and sleep it off. He wanted to leave Valencia, but knew not where to go. He desired to get out of Spain; and he had tried to get the run of the English steamers; but as he could not read the posters, or often find any one to read them for him, he had no success.
He was heartily tired of the place, and even more disgusted than he had been on board of the Tritonia. He desired to go to England, where he could speak the language of the country; but no vessel for England came along, so far as he could ascertain. One day an English gentleman arrived at the hotel; and Bill got up a talk with him, as he did with everybody who could speak his own language. He told him he wanted to get to England; and the tourist advised him to cross Spain and Portugal by rail, and take a steamer at Lisbon, where one sailed every week for Southampton or Liverpool, and sometimes two or three a week.