unwanted space in scps

Hello,

I am trying change text to smallcaps in the middle of text while relying 
on a CSS, but am having a spacing problem. Below is my code and results. 
Any suggestions? Thanks! -troy

XML snippet:
<p>H<scp>ere</scp> is my XML example</p>

XSL code:
<xsl:template match="p">
        <p><xsl:apply-templates/></p>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="scp">
        <scp><xsl:apply-templates/></scp>
</xsl:template>

CSS code:
 scp {
        font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
        font-size:75%;
}

HTML Output:
H<space>ERE is my XML example.....here is the problem! The extra space 
between H and 'ERE'. I have tried to do a <font size="-2"> in the HTML, 
but that does not work across all browsers. 

Desired HTML Output:
HERE is my XML example