The solitariness of his life did him good, by throwing his mind in upon himself, and showing the mental stuff of which he was made.

All the greatest and weightiest things have been done in solitude.
The first books he read were for the most part borrowed.

Customers who came to the shop to be shaved or have their hair dressed, took an interest in the conversation of the bright, cheerful, dark-eyed lad, and some of them lent him books to read.

What joy possessed him when he took refuge in his garret with a new book! Opening the book was like opening the door of a new world.

What enchantment! What mystery! What a wonderful universe about us! In reading a new book Jasmin forgot his impoverished boyhood, his grandfather Boe and his death in the hospital, his expulsion from the Seminary, and his mother's sale of her wedding-ring to buy bread for her children.