And what can equal for unfathomableness the workings of a woman's heart?
I had never given a thought to any other girl than Carette, unless by way of unfavourable comparison.

It is true I had never come across any girl so well worth thinking about.

The merry dark eyes with their deepening depths; the sweet wide mouth that flashed so readily into laughter, and set one thinking of the glad little waves and little white shells on Herm beach; the mane of dark brown hair--she wore it primly braided at the Miss Maugers'-- in which gleams of sunshine seemed to have become entangled and never been able to find their way out,--these went with me through the soft seductions of the Antilles, and the more experienced beguilements of the Mediterranean, and armed me sufficiently against them all;--these also that filled with rosy light many a long hour that for my comrades was dark and tedious, and kept my heart high and strong when the times were hard and bitter.
I had wondered at times, but always pleasurably, at the very unusual amount of education Carette was getting, for it was unusual at that time and under the circumstances, so far as I understood them.

But I rejoiced at it, remembering my grandfather's saying in my own case; and even when the results of it seemed to drop little veils between us, I am certain I never wished things otherwise so far as Carette was concerned, though perhaps for my own sake I might.
Jean Le Marchant of Brecqhou had prospered in his business, I knew.

His six stalwart sons had been too busy contributing to that prosperity to acquire any great book-learning.