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.