"I find it peaceful, Mr. Arkel, and that is enough for me."
"You have had trouble?" he asked with quick sympathy.
"My parents died while I was in my teens," explained Miriam, "and I was left a penniless orphan. Yes, I have had trouble. Shadow has been as much my portion as sunshine appears to have been yours."
Gerald set down Dicky, and took his hand.
"Oh, I have had my troubles too," said he easily, "but I don't feel them much. Perhaps my nature is too shallow."
"Or too sunny, Mr. Arkel—if a nature can be too sunny. Did you ever read Hawthorne's 'Marble Faun'?—I believe it is called 'Transformation' in the English edition."
"No." Gerald stared at the apparent irrelevancy of this question. "Why?"
"Because you are so very much like one of the characters in it—a child of nature, called Donatello. You are just the kind of man children love and animals trust."
"Oh, I get on pretty well with everyone," cried Gerald, tossing back his bright hair, "and everyone gets on with me."
"Ah, you are 'simpatico,' as the Italians say."