"I trust we shall become good friends while on this steamer, Miss Corona," he said, as he extended his hand, which she took readily and warmly pressed. He soon learned that even college life at Vassar had not modified her natural Spanish impulsiveness and warmth of heart. "A girl worth the winning," he thought, as he regretfully released her hand. CHAPTER II. "WITH THE SWEET MUST COME THE BITTER--AND, OH! SO BITTER AT TIMES!" As Howard Sherwood had intimated, he was poor, having nothing but his pencil and note-book to depend upon for a living. Reared in the lap of luxury, he had been suddenly thrown upon his own resources, with only his brains and a college education to back him. When a boy his parents had perished in a railroad disaster in New Hampshire and he had been turned over to the care of his uncle, Robert Sherwood, a wealthy bachelor, residing on Fifth avenue, New York City. Robert Sherwood had given great care to Howard's early education, and had insisted that the youth go to Yale, while he had suddenly taken a notion to go to Cuba, where he had invested heavily in sugar and tobacco plantations. On the very day that Howard graduated from the well-known seat of learning a letter was received from Robert Sherwood, stating that he had been prostrated with a low fever, the result of exposure in the swamps with which Cuba abounds. He was coming home under the care of a physician, and he asked that Howard be on hand to take up the business left in Cuba unfinished, as soon as he should be able to transfer the same. Howard was on hand, but instead of meeting his beloved uncle, he met only the physician, who told him that his uncle was dead, having died on the steamer when only one day out of Havana. The body had been buried at sea. The young man's grief was intense, for his uncle had been his last remaining relative. In his sorrow he scarcely asked about the business his uncle had mentioned in the letter, and he did not think of the matter until stern necessity made him throw aside his sorrow and grapple with the question of how to get along in the world. Then it was that he made the discovery that his uncle's financial affairs were hopelessly involved. Every dollar the bachelor had possessed had been invested in Cuba, and just how matters stood it was impossible to ascertain. Howard engaged an American lawyer in Santiago, named Thomas Herringford, but so far had received no encouragement. Over a hundred thousand dollars had been invested by Robert Sherwood in Cuban lands, and Howard was his sole heir, yet it was doubtful if the young man would realize a single dollar out of the vast estate.