If her head-mistress asked her a
point-blank question, she would not attempt to parry it, but would
reply at once with a point blank answer. Still, her very views on
the subject made it impossible for her to volunteer information
unasked to any one. Here was a personal matter of the utmost
privacy; a matter which concerned nobody on earth, save herself and
Alan; a matter on which it was the grossest impertinence for any
one else to make any inquiry or hold any opinion. They two chose
to be friends; and there, so far as the rest of the world was
concerned, the whole thing ended. What else took place between
them was wholly a subject for their own consideration. But if ever
circumstances should arise which made it necessary for her to avow
to the world that she must soon be a mother, then it was for the
world to take the first step, if it would act upon its own hateful
and cruel initiative. She would never deny, but she would never go
out of her way to confess. She stood upon her individuality as a
human being.
As to other practical matters, about which Alan ventured delicately
to throw out a passing question or two, Herminia was perfectly
frank, with the perfect frankness of one who thinks and does
nothing to be ashamed of.
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