ites
letters.

As for the Don's lady, Dona Mercedes, she may be described broadly as a
sleeping partner, her department in the firm being literally the
sleeping department. After disposing of her housekeeping duties, which
are briefly accomplished by handing the black cook a certain sum daily
for marketing purposes, the worthy lady passes the rest of the day with
a fan in a rocking chair, in which she sways and fans herself cool. Dona
Mercedes has a youthful appearance from her neck upwards, but being
somewhat corpulent, her figure scarcely corresponds with the attractions
of her face. Being, however, attired in a loose linen gown which falls
like a sack, ungirdled and uninterrupted, from her fair shoulders to her
remarkably small shoes, the protuberances of her person escape notice,
and, with her jet-black hair neatly and tastefully arranged, she may be
said to represent an agreeable type of the Cuban matron.

It is often a matter for wonder with me, how Senora Mercedes and her
friends contrive to keep their hair in such perfect order. Cuban ladies
being gifted by nature with a wealth of hair require no artificial aid;
but I am told that their heads being once 'dressed' for the day remain
intact till night, a fact which I can easily credit, seeing that no
ceole lady assumes either bonnet, hat, or other covering for the head,
when she takes her walks abroad.

But Dona Mercedes is not always such a helpless member of society as I
have represented her. She is possessed of a warm, generous nature, and
this quality often prompts the good lady to perform many useful acts of
kindness and charity to those who are in need of her benevolence.

Between one and three in the afternoon, Don Benigno and his family
indulge in the wholesome luxury of a warm bath; for, despite the
climate, a creole, when in town, rarely immerses his or her body in
perfectly cold water. The water intended for bathing purposes is
sometimes placed in the centre of the patio, or court-yard, where, under
the powerful influence of the sun, it is soon warmed to any reasonable
degree of temperature.

Ablutions over, the indispensable siesta is enjoyed by everybody, on
catres or in hammocks; for the heat of mid-day is insupportable, and
repose after a bath is considered salutary.

After the siesta, Dona Mercedes and her young daughters, accompanied by
her adopted child--a girl of ten--do what the ladies of many other
countries do late in the afternoon. Th