No recognition of a right and a wrong, to be sure.  But no express advocacy of a wrong.  I could not see then, and have never been able to see since, why Douglas with this practical facing of the business of life could not fare equally well with public opinion as Hamilton has fared with it, who advocated corruption in government as a means to a national power.

I went to Dorothy with my plan about Cuba, telling her that Douglas had gone there.  It stirred her languid spirits.  She was all eagerness to start.  We took passage from New York, sailing around Florida, at last around Morro Castle into the harbor of Havana.  The blueness of the water, with the balmy wind blowing almost incessantly began to restore Dorothy.  The Spanish city lying before our eyes, yellow and continental, awoke her interest.  At the dock there were crowds of idlers, Spaniards, negroes, to see us fasten and disembark.  With Dorothy and our son and two maids we made our way to a hotel near the water.  I was anxious to look up Douglas; but it was impossible the first evening, owing to Dorothy’s indisposition.  She had been seasick and the journey had fatigued her.  Nevertheless we went to the roof of the hotel together and sat there until nearly midnight, inhaling the luxurious breeze from the gulf and gazing up at the brilliant stars of this tropical sky.

The next morning I was down to breakfast early, leaving Dorothy to be served in her room.  The hotel was drab and decayed exteriorly; but the dining room was a continental elegance of marble, gilt, and mirrors.  Douglas was not stopping here, as I had already learned.  I concluded that he would be at one of the better known hotels on the Prado, and I hurried thither as fast as I could.  I soon located him; but he had gone out for a few days, was making something of a tour of the island, including a visit to the celebrated cave of Matanzas.  Leaving a note for Douglas which apprised him of my hotel, I hurried back to Dorothy.  The city was so brilliant under the golden sunshine, and the air so delightful, that I wished to spend these wonderful hours in seeing the city.

Havana was as novel to me as to Dorothy.  It was Spanish, therefore having no resemblance to London or any other English town.  It seemed to me to be about the size that New York was in 1833.  We spent three days driving through the Paso de Paula, along the Malecon, up and down the Prado lined with laurels and distinguished for fine houses and clubs.  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.