And then, intermixed with these higher motives, came others that he
hardly liked to confess to himself where Herminia was concerned,
but which nevertheless would obtrude themselves, will he, nill he,
upon him. What would other people say about such an innocent union
as Herminia contemplated? Not indeed, "What effect would it have
upon his position and prospects?" Alan Merrick's place as a
barrister was fairly well assured, and the Bar is luckily one of
the few professions in lie-loving England where a man need not
grovel at the mercy of the moral judgment of the meanest and
grossest among his fellow-creatures, as is the case with the
Church, with medicine, with the politician, and with the
schoolmaster. But Alan could not help thinking all the same how
people would misinterpret and misunderstand his relations with the
woman he loved, if he modelled them strictly upon Herminia's
wishes. It was hateful, it was horrible to have to con the thing
over, where that faultless soul was concerned, in the vile and
vulgar terms other people would apply to it; but for Herminia's
sake, con it over so he must; and though he shrank from the effort
with a deadly shrinking, he nevertheless faced it.
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