She was annoyed with herself, but in vain she called herself heartless; in vain she accused herself of indifference to the loss of her father, said to herself she was a worthless girl: there was the sun in the sky--not warm, but dazzling-bright and shining straight into her very being! while the air, instinct with life, was filling her lungs like water drunk by a thirsty soul, and making her heart beat like the heart of Eve when first she woke alive, and felt what her Maker had willed! Life indeed was good! it was a blessed thing for the eyes to behold the sun!--Let death do what it can, there is just one thing it cannot destroy, and that is life.

Never in itself, only in the unfaith of man, does life recognize any sway of death .-- A fresh burst of healthy vigour seemed born to answer each fresh effort.

Over the torrent they walked on a bridge of snow, and listening could hear, far down, below the thick white blanket, the noise of its hidden rushing.
Away and up the hill they went; the hidden torrent of Joan's blood flowed clearer; her heart sang to her soul; and everything began to look like a thing in a story--herself a princess, and her attendant a younger brother, travelling with her to meet the tide of in-flowing lovely adventure.

Such a brother was a luxury she had never had--very different from an older one.

He talked so strangely too--now like a child, now like an old man! She felt a charm in both, but understood neither.