"Harvey, I have far too few friends in the world
willingly to give up one of them. Come again and go down with
Dolly and me to Hind Head as usual next Sunday."
"Thank you," the man answered. "Herminia, I wish it could have
been otherwise. But since I must never have you, I can promise you
one thing; I will never marry any other woman."
Herminia started at the words. "Oh, no," she cried quickly. "How
can you speak like that? How can you say anything so wrong, so
untrue, so foolish? To be celibate is a very great misfortune even
for a woman; for a man it is impossible, it is cruel, it is wicked.
I endure it myself, for my child's sake, and because I find it hard
to discover the help meet for me; or because, when discovered, he
refuses to accept me in the only way in which I can bestow myself.
But for a man to pretend to live celibate is to cloak hateful wrong
under a guise of respectability. I should be unhappy if I thought
any man was doing such a vicious thing out of desire to please me.
Take some other woman on free terms if you can; but if you cannot,
it is better you should marry than be a party to still deeper and
more loathsome slavery.
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