But he tried, he honestly tried, and in prison he succeeded." All this seems to me in the main, true.

Oscar's gay vivacity would have astonished any stranger.

Besides, the regular hours and scant plain food of prison had improved his health and the solitude and suffering had lent him a deeper emotional life.

But there was an intense bitterness in him, a profound underlying sense of injury which came continually to passionate expression.

Yet as soon as the miserable petty persecution of the prison was lifted from him, all the joyous gaiety and fun of his nature bubbled up irresistibly.