But somehow he felt constrained to silence; her simple dignity outclassed him.
There was another factor too, in his forming his conclusion of silence.
He had never seen Stephen look so well, or so attractive.

He had never respected her so much as when her playfulness had turned to majestic gravity.

All the boy and girl strife of the years that had gone seemed to have passed away.

The girl whom he had played with, and bullied, and treated as frankly as though she had been a boy, had in an instant become a woman--and such a woman as demanded respect and admiration even from such a man..