“That is a very strange way to enter the Plato,” said Isabella, to her brother, drawing nearer to his side as she spoke.  “I wonder who it can be?”

“Some friend of Carlo’s, for he never behaves in that way to strangers,” said the boy.

“So it would seem; but here he comes, be he whom he may.”

“By our lady!” said the boy, earnestly, with a flash of spirit and color across his usually quiet and pale face.  “Sister, it is Captain Bezan!”

“Captain Bezan, I believe,” said Isabella, courtesying coolly to his respectful bow.

“The same, lady.”

“You have chosen a singular mode of introduction, sir,” said the Senorita Isabella Gonzales, somewhat severely, as she drew herself up with an air of cold reserve.

“It is true, lady, I have done a seemingly rash action; but if you will please to pause for one moment, you will at once realize that it was the only mode of introduction of which a poor soldier like myself could have availed himself.”

“Our hall doors are always open,” replied Isabella Gonzales.

“To the high born and proud, I grant you, lady, but not to such as I am.”

“Then, sir,” continued the lady, quickly, “if custom and propriety forbid you to meet me through the ordinary channels of society, do you not see the impropriety of such an attempt to see me as that which you have but just now made?”

“Lady, I can see nothing, hear nothing but my unconquerable love!”

“Love, sir!” repeated the lady, with a curl of her proud but beautiful lip.

“Ay, love, Isabella Gonzales.  For years I have loved you in secret.  Too humble to become known to you, or to attract your eye, even, I have yet nursed that love, like the better angel of my nature; have dreamed of it nightly; have prayed for the object of it nightly; have watched the starry heavens, and begged for some noble inspiration that would make me more worthy of thy affection; I have read nothing that I did not couple in some tender way with thee; have nursed no hope of ambition or fame that was not the nearer to raise me to thee, and over the midnight lamp have bent in earnestness year after year, that I might gain those jewels of the mind that in intelligence, at least, would place me by thy side.  At last fortune befriended me, and I was able by a mischance to him, thy brother, to serve thee.  Perhaps even then it might have ended, and my respect would still have curbed the promptings of my passion, had you not so kindly noticed me on the Paseo.  O, how wildly did my heart beat at that gentle, kind and thoughtful recognition of the poor soldier, and no less quickly beats that heart, when you listen thus to me, and hear me tell how deeply I love.”

“Audacity!” said Isabella Gonzales, really not a little aroused at the plainness of his speech.  “How dare you, sir, to address such language to me?”

“Love dares do anything but dishonor the being that it loves.  A year, lady, a month ago, how hopeless was my love-how far off in the blue ether was the star I worshipped.  Little did I then think that I should now stand so near to you-should thus pour out of the fullness of my enslaved and devoted heart, ay, thus look into those glorious eyes.”