been as much a part of his mother-land as Northern hill and Western
plain--as much his as the roaring dissonance of Broadway, or the icy
silence of the tundras, or the vast tranquil seas of corn rippling mile
on mile under the harvest moon of Illinois.

He halted, unquiet in the strangeness of it all, restless under its
exotic beauty, conscious of the languor stealing over him--the
premonition of a physical relaxation that he had never before
known--that he instinctively mistrusted.

People in groups passed and repassed along the lagoon wall where,
already curiously tired, he had halted beside an old bronze cannon--some
ancient Spanish piece, if he could judge by the arms and arabesques
covering the breech, dimly visible in the rays of a Chinese lantern.

Beyond was a private dock where two rakish power-boats lay, receiving
their cargo of young men and girls--all very animated and gay under the
gaudy electric lanterns strung fore and aft rainbow fashion.

He seated himself on the cannon, lingering until both boats cleared for
the carnival, rushing out into the darkness like streaks of
multi-coloured flame; then his lassitude increasing, he rose and
sauntered toward the hotel which loomed like a white mountain afire
above the dark masses of tropic trees. And again the press of the throng
hemmed him in among the palms and fountains and hedges of crimson
hibiscus; again the dusk grew gay with voices and the singing overtone
of violins; again the suffocating scent of blossoms, too sweet and
penetrating for the unacclimated, filtered through and through him, till
his breath came unevenly, and the thick odours stirred in him strange
senses of expectation, quickening with his pulses to a sudden prophecy.