They would be half hers, half his;
the pleasant burden of their support, the joy of their education,
would naturally fall upon both parents equally. But why discuss
these matters like the squalid rich, who make their marriages a
question of settlements and dowries and business arrangements?
They two were friends and lovers; in love, such base doubts could
never arise. Not for worlds would she import into their mutual
relations any sordid stain of money, any vile tinge of bargaining.
They could trust one another; that alone sufficed for them.
So Alan gave way bit by bit all along the line, overborne by
Herminia's more perfect and logical conception of her own
principles. She knew exactly what she felt and wanted; while he
knew only in a vague and formless way that his reason agreed with
her.
A week later, he knocked timidly one evening at the door of a
modest little workman-looking cottage, down a small side street in
the back-wastes of Chelsea. 'Twas a most unpretending street;
Bower Lane by name, full of brown brick houses, all as like as
peas, and with nothing of any sort to redeem their plain fronts
from the common blight of the London jerry-builder.
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