 Their natural parts were reversed; the young eyes declared
that they could see nothing but an horizon of blackest cloud, whilst those
enfeebled by years bore ceaseless witness to the raying forth of dawn.
    And so it was with a sensation of surprise that Sidney first became aware of
light-heartedness in the young girl who was a silent hearer of so many
lugubrious discussions. Ridiculous as it may sound - as Sidney felt it to be -
he almost resented this evidence of happiness; to him, only just recovering from
a shock which would leave its mark upon his life to the end, his youth wronged
by bitter necessities, forced into brooding over problems of ill when nature
would have bidden him enjoy, it seemed for the moment a sign of shallowness that
Jane could look and speak cheerfully. This extreme of morbid feeling proved its
own cure; even in reflecting upon it, Sidney was constrained to laugh
contemptuously at himself. And therewith opened for him a new world of thought.
He began to study the girl. Of course he had already occupied himself much with
the peculiarities of her position, but of Jane herself he knew very little; she
was still, in his imagination, the fearful and miserable child over whose
shoulders he had thrown his coat one bitter night; his impulse towards her was
one of compassion merely, justified now by what he heard of her mental slowness,
her bodily sufferings. It would take very long to analyse the process whereby
this mode of feeling was changed, until it became the sense of ever-deepening
sympathy which so possessed him this evening. Little by little Jane's happiness
justified itself to him, and in so doing began subtly to modify his own temper.
With wonder he recognised that the poor little serf of former days had been
meant by nature for one of the most joyous among children. What must that heart
have suffered, so scorned and trampled upon! But now that the days of misery
were over, behold nature having its way after all. If the thousands are never
rescued from oppression, if they perish abortive in their wretchedness, is that
a reason for refusing to rejoice with the one whom fate has blest? Sidney knew
too much of Jane by this time to judge her shallow-hearted. This instinct of
gladness had a very different significance from the animal vitality which
prompted the constant laughter of Bessie Byass; it was but one manifestation of
a moral force which made itself nobly felt in many another way. In himself
Sidney was experiencing its pure effects, and it was owing to his conviction of
Jane's power for good that he had made
