"
And from that day forth they were loyal friends, no more, one to
the other.
XVII.
And yet our Herminia was a woman after all. Some three years
later, when Harvey Kynaston came to visit her one day, and told her
he was really going to be married,--what sudden thrill was this
that passed through and through her. Her heart stood still. She
was aware that she regretted the comparative loss of a very near
and dear acquaintance.
She knew she was quite wrong. It was the leaven of slavery. But
these monopolist instincts, which have wrought more harm in the
world we live in than fire or sword or pestilence or tempest,
hardly die at all as yet in a few good men, and die, fighting hard
for life, even in the noblest women.
She reasoned with herself against so hateful a feeling. Though she
knew the truth, she found it hard to follow. No man indeed is
truly civilized till he can say in all sincerity to every woman of
all the women he loves, to every woman of all the women who love
him, "Give me what you can of your love and of yourself; but never
strive for my sake to deny any love, to strangle any impulse that
pants for breath within you.
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