Harold's father had been very proud of his ancestry, which was Gothic through the Dutch, as the manifestly corrupted prefix of the original name implied, and he had gathered from a constant study of the Sagas something of the philosophy which lay behind the ideas of the Vikings.
This new stage of Harold's life made for quicker development than any which had gone before.

Hitherto he had not the same sense of responsibility.

To obey is in itself a relief; and as it is an actual consolation to weak natures, so it is only a retarding of the strong.

Now he had another individuality to think of.

There was in his own nature a vein of anxiety of which the subconsciousness of his own strength threw up the outcrop.
Little Stephen with the instinct of her sex discovered before long this weakness.