dream city, crowning the shining blue tide.

Every house was hung with balconies on long shuttered windows, and
everywhere were parks and palms, tall palms with smooth pewter-like
trunks and short palms profusely leaved. Here, then, white and green,
was the place of his dedication; he was a little dashed at its size
and vigor and brilliancy.

The steamer was scarcely moving when the customs officials came on
board; and, as the drift ceased, a swarm of boats like scows with
awnings aft clustered about them. Hotel runners clambered up the
sides, and in an instant there was a pandemonium of Spanish and
disjointed English. A man whose cap bore the sign Hotel Telegrafo
clutched Charles Abbott's arm, but he sharply drew away, repeating the
single word, "Inglaterra!" The porter of that hotel soon discovered
him, and, with a fixed reassuring smile, got together all the baggage
for his guests.

Charles, instructed by Domingo Escobar, ignored the demand for
passports, and proceeded to the boat indicated as the Inglaterra's. It
was piled with luggage, practically awash; yet the boatmen urged it
ashore, to the custom house, in a mad racing with the whole churning
flotilla. The rigor of the landing examination, Charles thought
impatiently, had been ridiculously exaggerated; but, stepping into a
hack, two men in finely striped linen, carrying canes with green
tassels, peremptorily stopped him. Charles was unable to grasp the
intent of their rapid Spanish, when one ran his hands dexterously over
his body. He explored the pockets, tapped Charles' back, and then drew
aside. When, at last, he was seated in the hack, the position of the
derringer was awkward, and carefully he shifted it.

An intimate view of Havana increased rather than diminished its
evident charms. The heat, Charles found, though extreme, was less
oppressive than the dazzling light; the sun blazing on white walls, on
walls of primrose and cobalt, in the wide verdant openings, positively
blinded him. He passed narrow streets over which awnings were hung
from house to house, statues, fountains, a broad way with files of
unfamiliar trees, and stopped with a clatter before the Inglaterra.

It faced on a broad covered pavement, an arcade, along which, farther
down, were companies of small iron tables and chairs; and it was so
foreign to Charles, so fascinating, that he stood lost in gazing. A
hotel servant in white, at his elbow, recalled the necessity of
immediate ar