into any further detail, but had sunk into his celebrated immobility of
expression. Lee, therefore, had drawn his own, natural, conclusions; he
had come to regard Cuba in the same light as that of the early
Castilian adventurers--an El Dorado, but of freedom rather than gold.

A perverse restlessness settled upon him, and he put down his coffee
cup abruptly; the contentment in his surroundings vanished. Lee wanted
to be somewhere else, see something different, not so--so tranquil, so
complacently delivered to the uneventful. Fanny, he told himself
resentfully, would be satisfied to sit exactly where she was for a
year. She met his fleet scrutiny with a faint smile. Her face wouldn't
be greatly changed by old age, by death. She was like that, inside and
out. Whirling ungracious fancies passed through his brain. He shook his
head, and Fanny instantly demanded, "What is it, Lee, what is worrying
you?" Nothing, he replied, but she continued to study him until, giving
it up, she turned to the approaching dance; there would be a dinner at
the Club before it, and forty people from out of town had accepted.
They must all have a perfect time, she declared. Gregory could be heard
laughing, and, with a sense of relief, of escape, he volunteered to go
up and see what kept the children roused. He would only make them
worse, Fanny observed, he was as fidgety as Helena; but her tone
carried to him her compelling affection.

* * * * *

The darkened room where Helena and Gregory slept held a cold glimmering
whiteness; and the light he switched on showed a most sanitary bareness
and two severe iron beds. There was a moment's stillness as he entered,
the scrutiny of two rosy faces framed in blanket and sheet--there were
no pillows--and then there was a delighted vociferous recognition of