face was guilty of no such distortion,) but if your
little _danseuse_ should practice for years, she couldn't attain to
the delicious glance which my handsome creole girl can give you. The
heavily-fringed eyelid is just raised, so that you can look as if for
an interminable distance into the beautiful orb beneath, and at the
end of the vista, see the fiery soul which lies so far from the
voluptuous exterior.

"But, though I was madly in love, I had not yet dared with my lips to
say so to the lady, whatever my eyes might have revealed; but Pedro
was my confident, and encouraged me to hope.

"The third day of my sojourn on shore was spent in a visit to Don
Pedro's plantation in the vale, and it was dark when we arrived home.
After the light refreshment which constitutes the evening meal of
Cuba, Don Pedro pleaded business, and left the apartment--and for the
first time that day I was alone with Clara.

"'Now,' thought I, 'now or never.'

"If upon the impulse of the moment a man proceeds to make love, he
generally does it up ship-shape; but if he, with malice aforethought,
lays deliberate plans, he finds it the most awkward traverse to work
in the world to follow them--but I did not know this. I sat by the
table, and in my embarrassment kept pushing the solitary taper farther
and farther from me, until at last over it went, and was extinguished
upon the floor.

"'I beg ten thousand pardons!' cried I apologizing.

"'_N'importe_,' replied Clara, 'there is a fine moon, which will give
us light enough.'

"She rose and drew the curtain of the large bow-window, so common in
the West Indian houses, and the rich moonlight, now unvexed by the
dull glare of the taper, flowed into the apartment, bathing every
object it touched with silvery radiance. Clara sat in the window, in
the full glow of the light, leaning forward toward the open air, and
I, with a beating heart, gazed upon her superb beauty. Shall I ever
forget it? Her head leaned upon a hand and arm which Venus herself
might envy; the jetty curls which shaded her face fell in graceful
profusion, Madonna-like, upon shoulders faultless in shape, and white
as that crest of foam on yonder sea. Her face was the Spanish oval,
with a low, broad feminine forehead, eyebrows exquisitely penciled,
and arching over eyes that I shall not attempt to describe. Her lovely
bosom, half exposed as she leaned over, reminded me, as it heaved
against the chemiset, of the bows of a beautif