This was all very well in thought, but in practice the young soldier
will not perhaps find this so easy a matter. Patience and
perseverance are excellent qualities, but they are not certain
criteria of success. Lorenzo Bezan had aimed his arrow high, but it
was that little blind fellow, Cupid, that shot the bow. He was not
to blame for it-of course not.
"Ha! Bezan, whence come you with so bright a face?" asked a brother
officer, as he entered his quarters in the barracks of the Plaza des
Armes.
"From wooing a fair and most beautiful maid," said the soldier, most
honestly; though perhaps he told the truth as being the thing least
likely to be believed by the other.
"Fie, fie, Bezan. You in love, man? A soldier to marry? By our lady,
what folly! Don't you remember the proverb? 'Men dream in courtship,
but in wedlock wake.'"
"May I wake in that state with her I love ere a twelvemonth," said
Lorenzo Bezan, smiling at his comrade's sally and earnestness.
"Are you serious, captain?" asked the other, now trying to half
believe him.
"Never more so in my life, I assure you," was the reply.
"And who is the lady, pray? Come, relieve your conscience, and
confess.
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