one o’clock
By and by we turned off the main road at Cetafe , and got caught by closed bars at a railway crossing . `` We shall probably be here an hour , and might as well lunch , '' said the Cherub resignedly ; but when a humble-looking luggage train had crept in , it was so impressed with our air of superior importance that , to our surprise , it backed out rather than obstruct our honourable path ; and the gates were wheeled back for us to pass in front of the engine 's polite little nose . It was a spin of but fifty miles from Madrid to the olive plantations -LRB- the first I 'd seen in Spain -RRB- near Toledo ; but the road surface was not of velvet ; and we had often to slow down for animals who hated , because they did not understand , that most faithful and loyal of beasts , the automobile . Therefore it was close upon one o'clock when the noble old town rose in wild majesty before us on its granite , horseshoe hill , girdled by the dark gold bed of the Tagus . Madrid seen from afar off had scarcely been impressive , but this Rome of Spain -- though we did not approach it by way of the world-famous bridge -- was grander than any picture had led me to believe . We had seen nothing of the grey car yet , not even a cloud of dust , but we knew it must be here , and everyone of us looked forward to watching the face of the Duke when we should march into the dining-room of the best hotel , where by this time he and his party were probably about to lunch . In a few minutes I should see Monica , perhaps be as near to her as at the _ fonda _ of the Escurial .