Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/77

Rh Jenny Lind—this is, in my eyes, her most unusual and her noblest characteristic.

She was very amiable and affectionate to me; yes, so much so, that it affected me. Little did I expect that beneath the palms of the tropics we should come so near to each other!

I met at dinner at her house the whole of her travelling party—Belletti, Mademoiselle Åhrström, Mr. Barnum and his daughter, and many others. The best understanding seems to prevail between her and them. She praised them all, and praised highly the behaviour of Mr. Barnum to her. She was not now giving any concerts at Cuba, and was enjoying the repose and the beautiful tropical scenery and air. She sang for me unasked (for I would not ask her to sing) one of Lindblad's songs:

and her voice seemed to me as fresh and youthful as ever. One day she drove me to the Bishop's Garden, which was “beautiful, beautiful!” she said; beautiful park-like grounds, near Havanna, where she was anxious to show me the bread-fruit tree, and many other tropical plants, which proves her fresh taste for nature. In the evening we drove along the magnificent promenade, el Passeo di Isabella seconda, which extends for certainly upwards of three English miles between broad avenues of palm and other tropical trees, beds of flowers, marble statues and fountains, and which is the finest promenade any one can imagine, to say nothing of its being under the clear heaven of Cuba. The moon was in her first quarter, and floated like a little boat above the western horizon. Jenny Lind made me observe its different position here to what it has with us, where the new moon is always upright, or merely in a slanting direction to the earth. The entire circle of the moon appeared unusually clear.