At that date she had received a letter from Cuba telling her that a share in some property was awaiting her there; a long-contested lawsuit having at length been decided in favor of her mother's family. Madam Giron consulted her friends: was it an occasion when duty demanded that she should make the great effort of going in person to Cuba for the sake of "these dear angels," her children (the lawyer having written that her presence would be necessary), or was it not? Gracias discussed this point. It _was_ an effort for a lady to make; a lady was not in the habit of leaving the cherished seclusion of her own circle, to rush about the world at a lawyer's request, exposing herself in public conveyances to association with all sorts of people; some of her friends, notably the Senor Ruiz and her own nephew, Adolfo Torres, were decidedly of the opinion that she should not go. "It's so characteristic--their discussing it as they are doing," Winthrop remarked to his aunt--"discussing whether or not to take a short journey in order to secure an inheritance." "It's a very small inheritance, isn't it!" asked Aunt Katrina, languidly. "About fifteen hundred dollars, I believe. But you must remember that without it those children, probably, will have nothing but that mortgaged land." "I don't think the people here know or care whether they've got money or not," said Aunt Katrina, in a disgusted tone. "No, they don't. Probably that is one of the reasons why I like them so well." "Yet _you_ have a clear idea of the value of property, Evert." "I should think I had! I've worked for it--my idea." "Tell me one thing," pursued Aunt Katrina, whose mind was now on her nephew's affairs. "When you went north last month, wasn't it on account of something connected with that cousin of yours, or rather of your father's, David Winthrop?" "Well, David has great capacity: he is really wonderful," answered Winthrop, coming out of his reverie to smile at the remembrance of the ineffectual man. "In spite of the new partnership, he _had_ managed to tangle up everything almost worse than before." "Yet people call you hard!" commented Aunt Katrina, plaintively. "I am hard, I spend half my time trying not to be," responded her nephew, in what she called one of his puzzling tones. Aunt Katrina sometimes found Evert very puzzling. Madam Giron had finally decided to follow the advice of Dr. Kirby, which was, and had been unwaveringly from the beginning, to go. For she could not but be aware that the Doctor had a very extensive acquaintance with life, that he was more truly a man of the world than any one they had in Gracias; she mentioned this during a confidential interview she had with his mother. The Doctor, of course, was not surprised by her statement; he could not help knowing that he was.