' No, no, dear Harvey; I can't do that. Some sense of
personal continuity restrains me still. It is the Nemesis of our
youth; we can't go back in our later life on the holier and purer
ideals of our girlhood."
"Then you say no definitely?" Harvey Kynaston asked.
Herminia's voice quivered. "I say no definitely," she answered;
"unless you can consent to live with me on the terms on which I
lived with Dolly's father."
The man hesitated a moment. Then he began to plead hard for
reconsideration. But Herminia's mind was made up. She couldn't
belie her past; she couldn't be false to the principles for whose
sake she had staked and lost everything. "No, no," she said
firmly, over and over again. "You must take me my own way, or you
must go without me."
And Harvey Kynaston couldn't consent to take her her own way. His
faith was too weak, his ambitions were too earthly. "Herminia," he
said, before they parted that afternoon, "we may still be friends;
still dear friends as ever? This episode need make no difference
to a very close companionship?"
"It need make no difference," Herminia answered, with a light touch
of her hand.
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