Now that the worst stress of Jane's anxiety was over, she proved that she was half starved.  Indeed she had few misgivings now, for her confidence that Holcroft

would accomplish what he attempted was almost with her, he would sanction everything at oncehe answered. unbounded.  It was , for the farmer and his wife had much to think about and Jane much to

do in making up for many limited meals.  At last Holcroft smiled so broadly that Alida said, "Something seems to please you."
"Yes, more than one thing.  It might be a great deal worse, and was, not long ago.  I was thinking of old times."
"How pleasant they must have been to make you look so happy!"
"They had their uses, and make me think of a picture I saw in a store window in town.  It was a picture of a woman, and she took my fancy amazingly.  But the point

uppermost in my mind was a trick of the fellow who painted her.  He had made the background as dark as night and so she stood out as if alive; and she looked so

sweet and good that I felt like shaking hands with her.  I now see why the painter made the background so dark"
Alida smiled mischievously as she replied, "That was his art.  He knew that almost anyone would appear well against such a background."
But Holcroft was much too direct to be diverted from his thought or its expression. "The man knew the mighty nice-looking woman he had painted would look well," he

said, "and I know of another woman who appears better against a darker background.  That's enough to make a man smile who has been through what I have."
She could not help a flush of pleasure or disguise the happy light in her eyes, but she looked significantly at Jane, who, mystified and curious, was glancing from

one to the other.