Cirrus@Austlit

Romance of a young couple who had eloped together living on nothing in a rich house. The young husband is sick and the wife tries to think of a story to sell for their food. She dreams of a mysterious door into their apartment and a room in which there is a miniature portrait of a beautiful woman and a manuscript telling of a Cuban/American's tragic love for a Cuban beauty. His last testament written before his execution, it recounts their love affair in Cuba, their rapture, her secret sorrow, a stolen encounter between brother and sister which results in her death from a pistol shot - and his death which he suffers rather than reveal it was her father who shot her, not the narrator lover. (PB)