did not waver in her determination
to marry Paul, but she tried to put it off as long as possible,
struggling to clear away her doubts, and trying hard to feel that she
was acting rightly. After all, it is easy to comprehend the confusion
which arises in a young girl's mind when placed in such a position. We
say too readily that a woman who wavers and hesitates is treating a man
badly. Men are so quick to jump at the conclusion that women love them
that they resent violently the smallest signs of hesitation in the other
sex. They do not see that a woman needs time to decide, just as a man
does; and they think it quite enough that they themselves have made up
their minds, as if women existed only to submit themselves to the choice
of men, and had no manner of right to question that choice when once
made.

Paul could not imagine why Hermione hesitated, and she herself would
certainly have refused to account for the delay she caused, by admitting
that Alexander had made an impression upon her heart. But she felt the
charm the man exercised, and her life was really influenced by it. The
strange adventure which had so long kept him a prisoner in Laleli's
house lent him an atmosphere of romantic interest, and his own nature
increased the illusion. The brilliant young officer, with his almost
supernatural beauty, his ready tongue, his sweet voice, and his dashing
grace, was well calculated to make an impression upon any woman; to a
young girl who had grown up in very quiet surroundings, who had hitherto
regarded Paul Patoff as the ideal of all that a man should be, the
soldier brother seemed like a being from another world. At the same time
Hermione was reaching the age when she could enjoy society, because she
began to feel at home in it, because the first dazzling impression of it
had given way to a quieter appreciation of what it offered, and lastly
because she herself was surrounded by many admirers, and had become a
personage of more importance than she had ever thought possible before.
Under such circumstances a young girl's impressions change very rapidly.
She feels the disturbing influence and enjoys the moment, but while it
lasts she feels also that she is unfit to decide upon the greatest
question of her life. She needs time, because she can employ very little
of the time she has in serious thought, and because she doubts whether
all her previous convictions are not shaken to their foundations. She
dreads a mistake,