His face, in the lamp's full light, softened, but there was in it no hint of sensuousness to prepare one for this indulgence in luxurious bibliomania.

There was a childlike simplicity in Bassett's delight.

A man who enjoyed such playthings could not be hard, and Dan's heart warmed with liking.
"Are you a reader of poetry ?" asked Dan, as Bassett carefully collected the books and returned them to the safe.
"No.

That is something we leave behind us with our youth," he said; and looking down at the bent head and sturdy shoulders, and watching the strong fingers turning the key, Dan wondered what the man's youth had been and what elements were mixed in him that soft textures of leather and delicate tracings of gold on brown and scarlet and olive could so delight him.

His rather jaunty attitude toward the "Home Life of Hoosier Statesmen" experienced a change.