Matthew Ted’s Reviews > As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning > Status Update

Young and old were like emanations of the stifling medievalism of this pious and cloistered city; infected by its stones, like the pock-marked effigies of its churches, and part of one of the more general blasphemies of Spain.

For the first time I was learning how much easier it was to leave than stay behind and love.

Already in love. The first chapter is worth quoting but as I'm presently sat in a loft room in Worthing:

Worthing at that time was [...] full of of rich, pearl-chockered invalids [...] Standing at the gate of the park, in the mainstream of these ladies, I played a selection of spiritual airs, and in little over an hour collected thirty-eight shillings - which was more than a farm-labourer earned in a week.