Elisabeth had expected that her friend would finally sacrifice her opinions on the altar of her feelings; she was already old enough to be prepared for that; but she had anticipated a fierce warfare in the soul of Felicia between the directly opposing principles of this young lady's mother and lover.

To Elisabeth's surprise, this civil war never took place.

Felicia accepted Alan's doubts as unquestioningly as she had formerly accepted Mrs.Herbert's beliefs; and as she loved the former more devotedly than she had ever loved the latter, she was more devout and fervid in her agnosticism than she had ever been in her faith.

She had believed, because her mother ordered her to believe; she doubted, because Alan desired her to doubt; her belief and unbelief being equally the outcome of her affections rather than of her convictions.
Mrs.Herbert likewise looked leniently upon Alan's want of orthodoxy, and at this Elisabeth was not surprised.

Possibly there are not many of us who do not--in the private and confidential depths of our evil hearts--regard earth in the hand as worth more than heaven in the bush, so to speak; at any rate, Felicia's mother was not one of the bright exceptions; and--from a purely commercial point of view--a saving faith does not go so far as a spending income, and it is no use pretending that it does.