d so do the girls with tambourines for alms for the music in the
street. As there is no coin in Cuba less than the medio, 6-1/4 cents,
the musicians get a good deal or nothing. The absence of any smaller
coin must be an inconvenience to the poor, as they must often buy more
than they want, or go without. I find silver very scarce here. It is
difficult to get change for gold, and at public places notices are put
up that gold will not be received for small payments. I find the only
course is to go to one of the Cambios de Moneda, whose signs are
frequent in the streets, and get a half doubloon changed into reals and
pesetas, at four per cent discount, and fill my pockets with small
silver.

Spent the morning, from eleven o'clock to dinner-time, in my room,
writing and reading. It is too hot to be out with comfort. It is not
such a morning as one would spend at the St. Nicholas, or the Tremont,
or at Morley's or Meurice's. The rooms all open into the court-yard, and
the doors and windows, if open at all, are open to the view of all
passers-by. As there are no bells, every call is made from the veranda
rail, down into the court-yard, and repeated until the servant answers,
or the caller gives up in despair. Antonio has a compeer and rival in
Domingo, and the sharp voice of the woman in the next room but one, who
proves to be a subordinate of the opera troupe, is calling
out,"Do-meen-go! Do-meen-go!" and the rogue is in full sight from our
side, making significant faces, until she changes her tune to "Antonio!
Antonio! adonde esta Domingo?" But as she speaks very little Spanish,
and Antonio very little French, it is not difficult for him to get up a
misapprehension, especially at the distance of two stories; and she is
obliged to subside for a while, and her place is supplied by the parrot.
She is usually unsuccessful, being either unreasonable, or bad pay. The
opera troupe are rehearsing in the second flight, with doors and windows
open. And throughout the hot middle day, we hear the singing, the piano,
the parrot, and the calls and parleys with the servants below. But we
can see the illimitable sea from the end of the piazza, blue as indigo;
and the strange city is lying under our eye, with its strange blue and
white and yellow houses, with their roofs of dull red tiles, its strange
tropical shade-trees, and its strange vehicles and motley population,
and the clangor of its bells, and the high-pitched cries of the vendors