tiled
floor, a plain pallet, with a crucifix above the pillow, was all that it
contained. There was no parade of ecclesiasticism. The libraries were
well furnished, but the books were chiefly secular and scientific. The
chapel was unornamented; there were a few pictures, but they were simple
and inoffensive. Everything was good of its kind, down to the gymnastic
courts and swimming bath. The holiness was kept in the back ground. It
was in the spirit and not in the body. The cost of the whole
establishment was defrayed out of the payments of the richer students
managed economically for the benefit of the rest, with complete
indifference on the part of the Fathers to indulgence and pleasures of
their own. As we took leave the Marques kissed his old master's brown
hand. I rather envied him the privilege.

Something I saw of Havana society in the received sense of the word.
There are many clubs there, and high play in most of them, for the
Cubans are given to the roulette tables. The Union club which is the
most distinguished among them, invites occasional strangers staying in
the city to temporary membership as we do at the Athenaeum. Here you meet
Spanish _grandes_, who have come to Cuba to be out of reach of
revolution, proud as ever and not as poor as you might expect; and when
you ask who they are you hear the great familiar names of Spanish
history. I was introduced to the president--young, handsome, and
accomplished. I was startled to learn that he was the head of the old
house of Sandoval. The house of Columbus ought to be there also, for
there is still a Christophe Colon, the direct linear representative of
the discoverer, disguised under the title of the Duque de Veragua. A
perpetual pension of 20,000 dollars a year was granted to the great
Christophe and his heirs for ever as a charge on the Cuban revenue. It
has been paid to the family through all changes of dynasty and forms of
government, and is paid to them still. But the Duque resides in Spain,
and the present occupation of him, I was informed, is the breeding and
raising bulls for the Plaza de Toros at Seville.

Thus, every way, my stay was made agreeable to me. There were breakfasts
and dinners and introductions. Don G---- and his brother were not fine
gentlemen only, but were men of business and deeply engaged in the
active life of the place. The American consul was a conspicuous figure
at these entertainments. America may not find it her interest to ann