called himself General Vincente; and the name was synonymous in all
Spain with bloodthirstiness and cruelty, with daring and an
unsparing generalship.

'Come,' said he, 'let us look for Estella.'

He led the way along a path winding among almond and peach trees in
full bloom, in the shadow of the weird eucalyptus and the feathery
pepper tree. Then with a little word of pleasure he hurried
forward. Conyngham caught sight of a black dress and a black
mantilla, of fair golden hair, and a fan upraised against the rays
of the sun.

'Estella, here is a guest: Mr. Conyngham, one of the brave
Englishmen who remember Spain in her time of trouble.'

Conyngham bowed with a greater ceremony than we observe to-day, and
stood upright to look upon that which was for him from that moment
the fairest face in the world. As, to some men, success or failure
seems to come early and in one bound, so, for some, Love lies long
in ambush, to shoot at length a single and certain shaft. Conyngham
looked at Estella Vincente, his gay blue eyes meeting her dark
glance with a frankness which was characteristic, and knew from that
instant that his world held no other woman. It came to him as a
flash of lightning that left his former life grey and neutral, and
yet he was conscious of no surprise, but rather of a feeling of
having found something which he had long sought.

The girl acknowledged his salutation with a little inclination of
the head and a smile which was only of the lips, for her eyes