Why then
had he chosen her? It was a pity he had not had Mrs. Ladislaw,
whom he was always praising and placing above her. And thus
the conversation ended with the advantage on Rosamond's side.
But it would be unjust not to tell, that she never uttered a word
in depreciation of Dorothea, keeping in religious remembrance
the generosity which had come to her aid in the sharpest crisis of
her life.
Dorothea herself had no dreams of being praised above other women,
feeling that there was always something better which she might have done,
if she had only been better and known better. Still, she never
repented that she had given up position and fortune to marry
Will Ladislaw, and he would have held it the greatest shame as well
as sorrow to him if she had repented. They were bound to each other
by a love stronger than any impulses which could have marred it.
No life would have been possible to Dorothea which was not filled
with emotion, and she had now a life filled also with a beneficent
activity which she had not the doubtful pains of discovering
and marking out for herself. Will became an ardent public man,
working well in those times when reforms were begun with a young
hopefulness of immediate good which has been much checked in our days,
and getting at last returned to Parliament by a constituency
who paid his expenses.
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