The battle was not fought and won.

There had been a struggle, and what seemed to be a victory, but the enemy--intrenched in the very citadel of life--had rallied, and would make another desperate attempt to retrieve his defeat.
The haste with which the young man had quitted the village was only a proof that he felt his danger.

He believed that, if he came into the presence of Myrtle Hazard for the third time, he should be no longer master of his feelings.

Some explanation must take place between them, and how was it possible that it should be without emotion?
and in what do all emotions shared by a young man with such a young girl as this tend to find their last expression?
Clement determined to stun his sensibilities by work.

He would give himself no leisure to indulge in idle dreams of what might have been.
His plans were never so carefully finished, and his studies were never so continuous as now.