She pressed his hand and smiled again, for she knew that she had triumphed, and that he did love her, truly love her, and that his passion for Eva was a poor thing compared to what it had been years before—more indeed of a tender regret, not unmingled with a starry hope, than a passion at all. Dorothy was a clever little person, and understood something of Ernest and the human heart in general. She had thought long ago that she would win Ernest altogether to her in the end. By what tenderness, by what devotion and nobility of character she accomplished this, those who know her can well imagine, but in the end she did accomplish it, as she deserved to. The contrast between the conduct of the two women who had mainly influenced his life was too marked for Ernest, a man of a just and reasonable mind, to altogether ignore; and when once he came to comparisons the natural results followed. And yet, though he learned to love Dorothy so dearly, it cannot be said that he forgot Eva; because there are things that some men can never forget, since they are a part of their inner life, and of these first love is unfortunately one. “Ernest,” went on Dorothy, “you remember what you told me when you asked me to marry you in Titheburgh Abbey, about your belief that your affection for Eva would outlast this world. Do you still believe that?” “Yes, Doll, to a great extent.” His wife sat and thought for a minute. “Ernest,” she said presently. “Yes, dear.” “I have managed to hold my own against Eva in this world, when she had all the chances and all the beauty on her side, and what I have to say about your theories now is, that when we get to the next, and are all beautiful, it will be very strange if I don’t manage to hold my own there. She had her chance, and she threw it away; now I have got mine, and I don’t mean to throw it away, either in this world or the next.” Ernest laughed a little. “I must say, my dear, it would be a very poor heaven if you were not there.” “I should think so, indeed. ‘Those whom God hath joined together let not man put asunder’—nor woman either. But what is the good of our stopping here to talk such stuff about things of which we really understand nothing? Come, Ernest, Jeremy and the boys will be waiting for us.” And so hand in hand they went on homeward through the quiet twilight.