Admitting that he
had missed this feminine subtlety, he arranged two deck chairs in an
advantageous angle, and they sat enveloped in a mildness which, heavy
with the odor of water-soaked wood, was untroubled by any wind. When
the steamer left its pier Savina put a hand inside one of his. The
harbor lights dropped, pair by pair, back into the night; the vibration
of the propeller became a sub-conscious murmur; over the placid water
astern a rippling phosphorescence was stirred and subsided. A motion,
increasing by imperceptible degrees, affected the deck; there was a
rise and fall, regular and sleep-impelling: the uneasiness of the Gulf
Stream. Havana floated into their waking vision, a city of white marble
set in lustrous green, profound indigo, against the rosy veil of a
morning sun.
* * * * *
The fortunate chance that took them to the Inglaterra Hotel--the
disdain of its runner was more persuasive than the clamor of all the
others who had boarded the steamer--found them a room, they soon
discovered, in what was at once the most desirable and the most
unlikely place. They might have the chamber until Tuesday, Lee was
told, in an English inflected with the tonal gravity of Spain. It was
hardly past eight in the morning, an awkward hour to arrive newly at a
city, he thought, as they were carried up in the elevator. The details
of the floor, the hall, they crossed, engaged his interest; not alone
for the height of the ceiling, which was excessive, but because of the
palms, the pointed Moorish arches filled with green painted wood
lattices; the totality of an effect different from anything else he had
seen.
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