That was the extent of my emotional life. And
so we drove, and visited the shops in Opispo Street. For I was waiting
for Douglas. I wanted to take him off to a bull fight or a cock fight.
And I was eager to hear him talk of his plans, of America, of anything
that came from his fluent and restless mind.
One evening when Dorothy and I were in the comfortable lounging chairs
on the roof of the hotel, looking over toward Morro Castle, counting the
largest of the richly brilliant stars, Douglas came upon us. He had
returned from his trip only that afternoon. Finding my note, and leaving
other engagements, he had come over to call, delighted and surprised to
find that we were in Havana. Cuba already had a railroad, but it was not
of much extent. He had been traveling by carriage, and in the hillier
localities in a vehicle of two enormous wheels, drawn by horses driven
in tandem. He had seen the cave, the pineapple fields, the sugar
plantations. His imagination was already at work for America.
He went on to say to me that whenever the people of Cuba should show
themselves worthy of freedom by asserting their independence and should
apply for annexation to the United States, they ought to be annexed. And
that whenever Spain should be ready to sell Cuba, with the consent of
its inhabitants, the United States should accept the chance.
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