Neither was sensible how the quarters and the half-hours went by in such chatting.

Sidney abandoned himself to the enjoyment of peace such as he had never known save in this room, to a delicious restfulness such as was always inspired in him by the girl's gentle voice, by her laughter, by her occasional quiet movements.

The same influence was affecting his whole life.

To Jane he owed the gradual transition from tumultuous politics and social bitterness to the mood which could find pleasure as of old in nature and art.

This was his truer self, emancipated from the distorting effect of the evil amid which he perforce lived.