Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/79

Rh And if I should never again see Jenny Lind, I shall always henceforth see her thus, as at this moment, always love her thus.

I have now been six days in this very good but very expensive hotel. I pay five dollars a day for a small chamber, which one can hardly imagine more scantily furnished, and in a couple more days shall be obliged to pay six dollars, or admit some unknown guest into my room; for in two more days a steam-boat comes in, and new guests from New Orleans. I have therefore been inquiring after a new lodging, but it is not here as in America. In the meantime, kind, amiable people, partly Germans, partly English and Americans, desirous of making the place as agreeable to me as possible, have interested themselves about my affairs, and in consequence of their kindness I shall to-morrow remove for a few days to a country house just by the Bishop's beautiful garden, where I can, in freedom, make acquaintance with the trees and flowers of Cuba. Is not that charming? Is not my little travelling fairy careful of me?

I have hitherto spent my day as follows. At half-past seven in the morning Mrs. Mary enters my chamber with a cup of coffee and a little wheaten bread, which looks very enticing. And Mrs. Mary is an Irishwoman, one of the most excellent, nicest, most thoughtful, and good-hearted beings one can imagine, and the greatest treasure of this hotel, to me at least. Mrs. Mary's good temper and kind solicitude give to this hotel a feeling of home, and I should get on infinitely well here if the place were not so terribly dear.

After I have drank my coffee and eaten my bread, I go out, first to La Plaza des Armas, where the governor, the intendant, and the great admiral, the three great dignitaries of the island, have their palaces, occupying three sides of the square, the fourth of which is an enclosed plantation, between the iron railing of which is seen a