Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/348

 GLIMPSES OF SUNSHINE AND VERDURE Photograph by Harlow D. Higinbotham

explanations in indifferent French; looked out of windows upon scenes of beauty, and was reconducted to the door where fees were given, thanks returned, and the whole party ushered out. Such was my first unsatisfactory and disappointing visit to the Moorish wonderland,—a visit to which I had looked forward for many years. But I was resolved not to leave Granada until I had visited the Alhambra in my own way; until I had wandered in freedom through its mazes; until I had found opportunity to sit me down in some secluded corner and, undisturbed, read over once again those Tales of the Alhambra, which all of us have known from childhood. True, one may secure a permit "Por estudiar," "to study" in the palace; but all day long, from nine o'clock till dusk, the tread of pilgrim feet is heard, and bands of "Cookies" and "Gazers" and other guide-book-laden tourists, file in an almost unbroken procession through its precincts. Families are being photographed, seated upon the lions of the famous court; curious ones are inspecting with a