Coronado was far more fluent than Thurstane; had a greater command over his moods and manners, and a larger fund of animal spirits; knew more about such social trifles as women like to hear of; and was, in short, a more amusing prattler of small talk.

There was a steady seriousness about the young officer--something of the earnest sentimentality of the great Teutonic race--which the mercurial Mexican did not understand nor appreciate, and which he did not imagine could be fascinating to a woman.

Knowing well how magnetic passion is in its guise of Southern fervor, he did not know that it is also potent under the cloak of Northern solemnity.
Unluckily for Coronado, Clara was half Teutonic, and could comprehend the tone of her father's race.

Notwithstanding Thurstane's shyness and silences, she discovered his moral weight and gathered his unspoken meanings.

There was more in this girl than appeared on the surface.
Without any power of reasoning concerning character, and without even a disposition to analyze it, she had an instinctive perception of it.