But that was just talk.

There wasn't any evidence; there couldn't be any evidence.
Her support and encouragement put a new spirit into him.

He had been so alone against the world.

His own family, though they had loudly and fiercely protested his innocence to their friends and enemies in the village, had not expressed this faith in him to him.
Indeed, his father had expressed their real belief, when he said to him gloomily: "I always told you that damned temper of yours would get you into trouble, Jim." Then Elizabeth gave him his tea.

After it they talked calmly with an actual approach to cheerfulness till it was time for her to return to the Castle to dress Olivia's hair for dinner.