"How could one like you, sir, ever dare to entertain such feelings
towards me? the audaciousness of your language almost strikes me
dumb."

"Lady," said the young soldier, respectfully, "the sincerity of my
passion has been its only self-sustaining power. I felt that love
like mine could not be in vain. I was sure that such affection was
never planted in my breast to bloom and blossom simply for
disappointment. I could not think that this was so."

"I am out of all patience with his impertinence," said Isabella
Gonzales, to herself, pettishly. "I don't know what to say to him."

"Sir, you must leave this place at once," she said, at last, after a
brief pause.

"I shall do so, lady, at your bidding; but only to pray and hope for
the next meeting between us, when you may perhaps better know the
poor soldier's heart."

"Farewell, sir," said Isabella.

"Farewell, Isabella Gonzales."

"Are you going so soon?" asked Ruez, now approaching them from a
short distance in the rear, where he had been playing with the
hound.

"Yes, Ruez," said the soldier, kindly. "You are quite recovered, I
trust, from the effects of that cold bath taken off the parapet