midday
he muttered , ` with your jokes about my wife . Now you may make a false journey for all the help you receive from me . ' And a few minutes later Concepçion rode across the Bridge of Alcantara , some paces behind Conyngham , who deemed it wise to return to his duties at Madrid without delay . Despite the great heat on the plains , which , indeed , made it almost dangerous to travel at midday , the streets of Toledo were cool and shady enough , as Sir John Pleydell traversed them in search of the Palazzo Barenna . The Contessa was in , and the Englishman was ushered into a vast room , which even the taste of the day could not entirely deprive of its mediæval grandeur . Sir John explained to the servant in halting Spanish that his name was unknown to the Señora Barenna , but that -- a stranger in some slight difficulty -- he had been recommended to seek her assistance . Sir John was an imposing-looking man , with that grand air which enables some men not only to look , but to get over a wall while an insignificant wight may not so much as approach the gate .