She said, after a few minutes watching of the grave, still face--not exactly sad, but only very still, very grave-- "Just look at papa, how happy he is among those books you sent for! Your plan of his arranging the library is the delight of his life." "Is it?
I am so glad," said the earl, brightening up at once.

'What a good thing I thought of it!" "You always do think of every thing that is good and kind," said Helen, softly.
"Thank you," and the shadow passed away, as any trifling pleasure always had power to make it pass.

Sometimes Helen speculated vaguely on what a grand sort of man the earl would have been had he been like other people -- how cheerful, how active, how energetic and wise.

But then one never knows how far circumstances create and unfold character.

We often learn as much by what is withheld as by what is enjoyed.
"Helen," he said, moving his chair a little nearer her--he had brought one good thing from London, a self-acting chair, in which he could wheel himself about easily, and liked doing it--"I wonder whether your father would have taken as much pleasure in his books thirty years ago.