22 LAKE SUPEEIOB. 



CHAPTER I. 



LAKE STJPEBIOE. 



Don Pedeo is descended from one of what vce in 

 our young country call the old and highly-respecta- 

 ble families, and having been nurtured amid the 

 refinements and luxuries of life, is one of the most 

 gentlemanly men imaginable. At the public rooms 

 of a hotel, in the halls, on the piazza, in the saloon 

 of a steamboat, he can never pass a lady, though she 

 be a perfect sti-anger, without in the most defer- 

 ential manner removing his hat. To this reverence 

 for the fair sex he adds an easy elegance towards 

 his own, that at once commands attention and 

 respect. 



Never having taken an active share in the world's 

 affairs, his abilities, which are far above the average, 

 have lain dormant or run to criticising art or com- 

 mitting poetry ; and he is rather apt to discuss very 

 small matters with a minuteness and persistency 

 that imjjortant ones scarcely merit. 



He had travelled Europe, of course, had shot 

 quail and taken trout in Long Island, fired at croco- 

 diles on the Nile and jackals in the desert; and 

 .although probably the greatest exposure of his life 

 had been damp sheets at a country inn, and his 



