The Vision Splendid had crystallized into an unconquerable purpose of which he felt the thrill.
Without Sophie Zobraska's love he would have walked on doggedly, obstinately, with set teeth.

He had proved himself fearless, scornful of the world's verdict.

But he would have walked in wintry gloom with a young heart frozen dead.

Now his path was lit by warm sunshine and the burgeon of spring was in his heart.

He could laugh again in his old joyous way; yet the laughter was no longer that of the boy, but of the man who knew the place that laughter should hold in a man's life.
On the day when he, as chairman, had first presided over a meeting of the Board of Directors of Fish Palaces Limited, he went to the Princess and said: "If I bring with me 'an ancient and fish-like smell, a kind of, not of the newest, Poor-John,' send me about my business." She bade him not talk foolishly.
"I'm talking sense," said he.