There, too, Dora, for the first time, learned what Ronald, far away in sunny Italy, failed to teach her--how to think and read.

Big boxes of books came from the town of Shorebeach.

Stephen Thorne spared no trouble or expense in pleasing his daughter.

Dora wondered that she had never cared for books, now that deeper and more solemn thoughts came to her.

The pale face took a new beauty; no one could have believed that the thoughtful woman with the sweet voice and refined accent was the daughter of the blunt farmer Thorne and his homely wife.
A few weeks passed, and but for the little ones Dora would have believed the whole to have been but a long, dark dream.