Often she mocked at him and laughed at him, and then he liked her all the better.

No placid, submissive woman, shrinking before the dangers, would have pleased him.

In her light laughter and her banter, even at his expense, he read a noble courage and a lofty soul, and in their singular isolation it was given to him to see her spirit, so strong and yet so rarely sweet in a manner that the circumstances of ordinary life could never have brought forth.

And the faithful Suzanne, still in her double role of servant and guardian, served and guarded them both.
John at this time began to feel a more forgiving spirit toward Auersperg.

It might well be that this man of middle years, so thoroughly surrounded by old, dead things that he had never seen the world as it really was, had been bewitched.