But even before Herminia
went away to Perugia, she had acquired some small journalistic
connection; and now, in her hour of need, she found not a few of
the journalistic leaders by no means unwilling to sympathize and
fraternize with her. To be sure, they didn't ask the free woman to
their homes, nor invite her to meet their own women:--even an
enlightened journalist must draw a line somewhere in the matter of
society; but they understood and appreciated the sincerity of her
motives, and did what they could to find employment and salary for
her. Herminia was an honest and conscientious worker; she knew
much about many things; and nature had gifted her with the
instinctive power of writing clearly and unaffectedly the English
language. So she got on with editors. Who could resist, indeed,
the pathetic charm of that girlish figure, simply clad in
unobtrusive black, and sanctified in every feature of the shrinking
face by the beauty of sorrow? Not the men who stand at the head of
the one English profession which more than all others has escaped
the leprous taint of that national moral blight that calls itself
"respectability.
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