We
visited the parks, the Exchange, the old churches, the navy yard, La
Fueza, built by De Soto, the old markets of Colon and Tacon, the Palace;
and we stood in the Cathedral before the medallion which marked the
burial place of Columbus when his remains were removed here from Santa
Domingo in 1796. We dined about the cafes and hotels, and attended the
theater, and walked, when Dorothy felt equal to it, through the parks,
or along the wall of the sea which stretched from the punta.
I have already recorded so much of wrangling politics and the debates of
infuriate minds that one might infer that I was leading no life of my
own. Do you think that I am only a shadow or a registering machine, and
that Dorothy is not flesh and blood? Sometimes it occurs to me that I am
not treating her as a woman in spite of my desire to be thoughtful. A
vast world of rich imagination, of vital emotion was in truth moving
about me all the while, and in breasts that I did not comprehend. For
all my life up to this time and beyond it, as you shall see, was
occupied with money making and with watching principally the epic
development of America. But I was later to awake as from a day dream or
from a life in a shell, to the consciousness of a brighter world of
sunlight and of wings. I was at peace now, and with Dorothy, whose
frailty required my watchfulness and my care, and whom I delighted to
please with lovely things.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311