But after these eight months the child of four was shy and timid with this unfamiliar father.

He on his side saw that she was prettier than before; his eye delighted in some of the rarer and lovelier lines of her little face; and he felt a fatherly pride.

He must make some fresh studies of her; the child in the 'Genius Loci' might be improved.
After supper, Phoebe seemed to him so pale and tottering that he made her rest beside the fire, while he himself cleared the supper-things away.

She lay back in her chair, laughing at his awkwardness, or starting up when china clashed.
Meanwhile, as in their farewell talk beside the ghyll eight months before, her mood gradually and insensibly changed.

Whatever unloving thoughts or resentments had held her in the first hour of their meeting, however strong had been the wish to show him that she had been lonely and suffering, she could not resist what to her was the magic of his presence.