ff exercised all her ingenuity in giving her favorite son
opportunities of seeing Hermione alone. It was very easy to do this, and
she did it in the most natural way; she affected to repent bitterly of
her injustice to Paul, and took delight in calling him to her side, and
keeping him with her as long as possible. Sometimes she would make him
stay an hour by her side at a party, going over and over the strange
story of Alexander's imprisonment, and asking him questions again and
again, until he grew weary and absent, and answered her with rather
incoherent phrases, or in short monosyllables not always to the point.
Then at last, when she saw that she could keep him no longer, she would
let him go, asking him to forgive her for being so importunate, and
explaining as an excuse that she could never hear enough of a story that
had ended so happily. Meanwhile Alexander had found ample opportunity
for talking with Hermione, and had made the most of his time.

I have said that I had always been very fond of the young girl, and I
thought that I understood her character well enough; but I find it hard
to understand the phases through which she passed after she first met
Alexander. I believe she loved Paul very sincerely from the first, and I
know that she contemplated the prospect of marrying him at no distant
time. But I am equally sure that she did not escape the influence of
that wonderful fascination which Alexander exercised over everybody. If
it is possible to explain it at all, which is more than doubtful, I
should think that it might be accounted for on some such theory as this.
Hermione was negative as compared with Paul, but in comparison with
Alexander she was positive. It is clear that if this were so she must
have experienced two totally different sets of impressions, according as
she was with the one or the other of the brothers.

To define more clearly what I mean, I will state this theory in other
words. Paul Patoff was a very masculine and dominating man. Hermione
Carvel was a young girl, who resembled her strong, sensible, and manly
father far more than her meek and delicate mother. Though she was still
very young, there was much in her which showed the determined will and
energetic purpose which a man needs to possess more than a woman.
Alexander Patoff, on the other hand, without being effeminate, was
intensely feminine. He had fine sensibilities, he had quick intuitions,
he was capricious and womanly in his