his rays. Jane and he met, they shook hands, they conversed. And at
subsequent teas they met again, for Speranza, on his part, was strongly
attracted to the simple, unaffected Cape Cod schoolgirl. It was not
her beauty alone--though beauty she had and of an unusual type--it
was something else, a personality which attracted all who met her.
The handsome Spaniard had had many love affairs of a more or less
perfunctory kind, but here was something different, something he had
not known. He began by exerting his powers of fascination in a lazy,
careless way. To his astonishment the said powers were not overwhelming.
If Jane was fascinated she was not conquered. She remained sweet,
simple, direct, charmingly aloof.

And Speranza was at first puzzled, then piqued, then himself madly
fascinated. He wrote fervid letters, he begged for interviews, he
haunted each one of Mrs. Cole's "teas." And, at last, he wrung from Jane
a confession of her love, her promise to marry him. And that very week
Miss Donaldson, the head of the school, discovered and read a package of
the Senor's letters to her pupil.

Captain Zelotes happened to be at home from a voyage. Being summoned
from South Harniss, he came to Boston and heard the tale from Miss
Donaldson's agitated lips. Jane was his joy, his pride; her future was
the great hope and dream of his life. WHEN she married--which was not
to be thought of for an indefinite number of years to come--she would of
course marry a--well, not a President of the United States, perhaps--but
an admiral possibly, or a millionaire, or the owner of a fleet of
steamships, or something like that. The idea that she should even
think of marrying a play-actor was unbelievable. The captain had never
attended the performance of an opera; what was more, he never expected
to attend one. He had been given to understand that a "parcel of