a riddle of which he did not know the key. That she was clever and
well-informed he soon discovered from her rare remarks; that she could
sing like an angel he also knew; but what was the mainspring of her
mind--round what axis did it revolve--this was the puzzle. Clearly
enough it was not like most women's, least of all like that of happy,
healthy, plain-sailing Bessie. So curious did he become to fathom these
mysteries that he took every opportunity to associate with her, and,
when he had time, would even go out with her on her sketching, or rather
flower-painting, expeditions. On these occasions she would sometimes
begin to talk, but it was always about books, or England or some
intellectual question. She never spoke of herself.

Yet it soon became evident to John that she liked his society, and
missed him when he did not come. It never occurred to him what a boon
it was to a girl of considerable intellectual attainments, and still
greater intellectual capacities and aspirations, to be thrown for the
first time into the society of a cultivated and intelligent gentleman.
John Niel was no empty-headed, one-sided individual. He had both read
and thought, and even written a little, and in him Jess found a mind
which, though of an inferior stamp, was more or less kindred to her own.
Although he did not understand her she understood him, and at last, had
he but known it, there rose a far-off dawning light upon the twilight
of her heart that thrilled and changed it as the first faint rays of
morning thrill and change the darkness of the night. What if she should
learn to love this man, and teach him to love her? To most women such a
thought more or less involves the idea of marriage, and that change of
status which for the most part they consider desirable. But Jess did not
think much of that: what she did think of was the blessed possibility of
being able to lay down her life, as it were, in the life of another--of
at last finding somebody who understood her and whom she could