Johnston McCulley

“ Don Diego cried. "I have heard of nothing else for these many days. I go to spend an evening with a fray, and in comes a crowd of soldiers chasing this señor Zorro. I repair to the hacienda of my father to get me peace and quiet, and along comes a crowd of caballeros seeking news of Señor Zorro. These be turbulent times. A man whose nature inclines him to music and the poets has no right to exist in the present age."
"It desolates me that you have been annoyed," the governor said, laughing. ”

“ Most sincerely do I. All real foes of the state should receive punishment."
"I am joyed to hear you say that, caballero!" the governor cried, and he reached across the table and grasped Don Diego fervently by the hand.
There was some more talk that amounted to nothing, and then Don Diego took his leave, for there were other men waiting to see the governor. After he had left the office the governor looked across at Captain Ramón and smiled.
"You are right, commandante," he said. "Such a man could not be a traitor. It would tire him too much to think treasonable thoughts. What a man! ”

“ He walked with swinging stride, gazing both to right and left as if at the hills in the distance, and once he stopped to observe a blossom that bloomed beside the path. His rapier was at his side, his most fashionable one with its jeweled hilt, and in his right hand he carried a handkerchief of flimsy lace, which he wafted this way and that like a dandy, and now and then touched it to the tip of his nose. ”