CHAPTER V.

THE WOUNDED SOLDIER.





THE fervor and heat of the mid-day atmosphere had been intense, but
a most delightfully refreshing sea breeze had sprung up at last, and
after fanning its way across the Gulf Stream, was dallying now with
the palms and orange trees that so gracefully surrounded the marble
statue of Ferdinand, in the midst of the Plaza, and ruffling the
marble basin of water that bubbles forth from the graceful basin at
its base. Light puffs of it, too, found their way into the
invitingly open windows of the governor's palace, into an apartment
which was improved by General Harero. Often pausing at the window to
breathe in of the delightful atmosphere for a moment, he would again
resume his irregular walk and seemingly absorbed in a dreamy frame
of mind, quite unconscious of the outward world about him. At last
he spoke, though only communing with himself, yet quite aloud:

"Strange, very strange, that this Captain Bezan should seem to stand
so much in my way. Curse his luck, the old don and his daughter feel
under infinite obligations to him already, and well they may, as to
the matter of that. If it was not for the girl's extraordinary stock
of pride, we should have her falling in love with this young gallant
directly, and there would be an end to all my hopes and fancies.
He's low enough, now, however, so my valet just told me, and ten to