Mare Nostrum (Our Sea). Vicente Blasco Ibanez

form of addressing a maiden without frightening her? … Where the deuce could a body learn the art of proposing to a shy girl? …

      For him, doubts were never very long nor painful affairs. Forward march! Let every one get out of such matters as best he could. And one evening when Cinta was going from the parlor to her aunt's bedroom in order to bring her a devotional book, she collided with Ulysses in the passageway.

      If she had not known him, she might have trembled for her existence. She felt herself grasped by a pair of powerful hands that lifted her up from the floor. Then an avid mouth stamped upon hers two aggressive kisses. "Take that and that!" … Ferragut repented on seeing his cousin trembling against the wall, as pale as death, her eyes filled with tears.