They pointed to one
conclusion in his judgment and he believed that when a seemly period
had elapsed she would allow herself to love Doria. That was as much
as to say she had already begun to do so, if unconsciously. This
surprised him, for even granting the obvious fascination of the man,
he could hardly believe that the image of her first husband had
already begun to grow faint in Jenny's memory. He remembered her
grief and protestations at Princetown; he perceived the deep
mourning which she wore. She was indeed young, but her character had
never appeared to him youthful or light-hearted. Against that fact,
however, he had certainly only known her after her sorrow and loss,
and he remembered how she had sung on the moor upon the evening she
passed him in the sunset light. She had probably been cheerful and
joyous before her husband's death. But she surely never possessed a
frivolous nature. His knowledge of character told him that. And
there was strength as well as sweetness in her face. Serious
subjects had interested her in his small experience of her company;
but that might be because she responded, as a delicate instrument,
to her environment; and he himself had never been anything but
serious beside her.
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