How gladly she talked to the girl of the goodness and the beauty of those to whom she owed her being and whom she had so early lost! She could pour out to this motherly soul all that weighed on her own, and was received by her as a beloved daughter of her old age.
And her hosts--what kind-hearted though singular folks! nay, in their way, remarkable.

She had never dreamed that there could be on earth any beings at once so odd and so lovable.
First there was old Rufinus, the head of the house, a vigorous, hale old man, who, with his long silky, snow-white hair and beard, looked something like the aged St.John and something like a warrior grown grey in service.

What an amiable spirit of childlike meekness he had, in spite of the rough ways he sometimes fell into.

Though inclined to be contradictory in his intercourse with his fellow-men, he was merry and jocose when his views were opposed to theirs.

She had never met a more contented soul or a franker disposition, and she could well understand how much it must fret and gall such a man to live on,--day after day, appearing, in one respect at any rate, different from what he really was.