He was like a bird let out of a cage, so joyously alive was he.

The old sparkle came back to his eye, the old gay smile to his lips.

Now that they had come back Billy realized what she had not been conscious of before: that for several weeks past they had not been there; and she wondered which hurt the more--that they had not been there before, or that they were there now.

Then she scolded herself roundly for asking the question at all.
They were not easy--those days for Billy, though always to Bertram she managed to show a cheerfully serene face.

To Uncle William, also, and to Aunt Hannah she showed a smiling countenance; and because she could not talk to anybody else of her feelings, she talked to herself.