It was only certainty of himself.

At twenty-two there is time for anything, and the vista of life ahead is endless.

And there was one thing more which Kathleen did not know.

Under the covering of this Seagrave complacency and self-centred sufficiency, all alone by itself was developing the sprouting germ of consideration for others.
How it started he himself did not know--nor was he even aware that it had started.

But long, solitary rambles and the quiet contemplation of other things besides himself had awakened first curiosity, then a dawning suspicion of the rights of others.
In the silence of forests it is difficult to preserve complacency; under the stars modesty is born.
It began to occur to him, by degrees, that his own personal importance among his kind _might_ be due, in part, to his fortune.