Possessed of a highly chivalrous disposition, Lieutenant Bezan had
few confidants among his regiment, who, notwithstanding this, loved
him as well as brothers might love. He seemed decidedly to prefer
solitude and his books to the social gatherings, or the clubs formed
by his brother officers, or indeed to join them in any of their
ordinary sports or pastimes.

Of a very good family at home, he had the misfortune to have been
born a younger brother, and after being thoroughly educated at the
best schools of Madrid, he was frankly told by his father that he
must seek his fortune, and for the future rely solely upon himself.
There was but one field open to him, at least so it seemed to him,
and that was the army. Two years before the opening of our story he
had enlisted as a third lieutenant of infantry, and had been at once
ordered to the West Indies with his entire regiment. Here promotion
for more than one gallant act closely followed him, until at the
time we introduce him to the reader as first lieutenant. Being of a
naturally cheerful and exceedingly happy disposition, he took life
like a philosopher, and knew little of care or sorrow until the time
when he first saw Senorita Isabella Gonzales-an occasion that
planted a hopeless passion in his breast.

From the moment of their first meeting, though entirely unnoticed by
her, he felt that he loved her, deeply, tenderly loved her; and yet
at the same time he fully realized how immeasurably she was beyond
his sphere, and consequently hopes. He saw the first officials of
the island at her very feet, watching for one glance of
encouragement or kindness from those dark and lustrous eyes of jet;
in short, he saw her ever the centre of an admiring circle of the