Thus things went on till this day of my mother's death. But before I
go further I must tell that Squire Bozard looked with no favour on the
friendship between his daughter and myself--and this, not because he
disliked me, but rather because he would have seen Lily wedded to my
elder brother Geoffrey, my father's heir, and not to a younger son. So
hard did he grow about the matter at last that we two might scarcely
meet except by seeming accident, whereas my brother was ever welcome
at the Hall. And on this account some bitterness arose between us two
brothers, as is apt to be the case when a woman comes between friends
however close. For it must be known that my brother Geoffrey also loved
Lily, as all men would have loved her, and with a better right perhaps
than I had--for he was my elder by three years and born to possessions.
It may seem indeed that I was somewhat hasty to fall into this state,
seeing that at the time of which I write I was not yet of age; but young
blood is nimble, and moreover mine was half Spanish, and made a man of
me when many a pure-bred Englishman is still nothing but a boy. For the
blood and the sun that ripens it have much to do with such matters, as
I have seen often enough among the Indian peoples of Anahuac, who at the
age of fifteen will take to themselves a bride of twelve. At the least
it is certain that when I was eighteen years of age I was old enough
to fall in love after such fashion that I never fell out of it again
altogether, although the history of my life may seem to give me the lie
when I say so.
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