The man gazed at her in surprise. Though he was prepared for much,

he was scarcely prepared for such devotion to principle. "Oh,

Herminia," he cried, "you can't mean it. You can't have thought of

what it entails. Surely, surely, you won't carry your ideas of

freedom to such an extreme, such a dangerous conclusion!"

Herminia looked up at him, half hurt. "Can't have thought of what

it entails!" she repeated. Her dimples deepened. "Why, Alan,

haven't I had my whole lifetime to think of it? What else have I

thought about in any serious way, save this one great question of a

woman's duty to herself, and her sex, and her unborn children?

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It's been my sole study. How could you fancy I spoke hastily, or

without due consideration on such a subject? Would you have me

like the blind girls who go unknowing to the altar, as sheep go to

the shambles? Could you suspect me of such carelessness?--such

culpable thoughtlessness?--you, to whom I have spoken of all this

so freely?"

Alan stared at her, disconcerted, hardly knowing how to answer.

"But what alternative do you propose, then?" he asked in his

amazement.

"Propose?" Herminia repeated, taken aback in her turn. It all

seemed to her so plain, and transparent, and natural. "Why, simply

that we should be friends, like any others, very dear, dear

friends, with the only kind of friendship that nature makes

possible between men and women."

She said it so softly, with some womanly gentleness, yet with such

lofty candor, that Alan couldn't help admiring her more than ever

before for her translucent simplicity, and directness of purpose.

Yet her suggestion frightened him. It was so much more novel to

him than to her. Herminia had reasoned it all out with herself, as

she truly said, for years, and knew exactly how she felt and

thought about it. To Alan, on the contrary, it came with the shock

of a sudden surprise, and he could hardly tell on the spur of the

moment how to deal with it. He paused and reflected. "But do you

mean to say, Herminia," he asked, still holding that soft brown

hand unresisted in his, "you've made up your mind never to marry

any one? made up your mind to brave the whole mad world, that can't

possibly understand the motives of your conduct, and live with some

friend, as you put it, unmarried?"

"Yes, I've made up my mind," Herminia answered, with a faint tremor

in her maidenly voice, but with hardly a trace now of a traitorous

blush, where no blush was needed. "I've made up my mind, Alan; and

from all we had said and talked over together, I thought you at

least would sympathize in my resolve."




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