of finding shelter save with her.

"But young ---- was not less sensible than his mother to the girl's
charm, and it presently became evident that he had the child's whole
heart in return. And now began difficulties. For years Lady ---- had
declaimed against the bondage, the hideous wrongs and wretchednesses of
marriage, and had never tired in depicting a glorious earth-life in the
future when the free man and woman should love each other because they
loved--but be held to no duty of loving, no responsibility--free as the
air to come and go; and young ----, fed on such food, companioned as he
had always been, was far more vehement than his mother upon the
subject, and had sworn by all his gods that civilized marriage should
never count him among its victims.

"He told the girl he loved her, but that she knew he could not marry
her; that the fetters of marriage would kill love in him; and he would
rather assume them for any woman in the world than herself. The girl
would have married him at a word; on her part there was the utter
surrender of an adoring affection; but what would it be to have Herbert
without his love?

"And she had not been so intimately a member of that household without
coming to share its opinions and sentiments, so she declared that
Herbert should give her his love, make no sacrifice for her, sully the
ethereal nature of their relation with no worldly care. They were to be
that grand pair, the coming man and woman, prophesied by Lady ---- and
her philosophers. But, most astonishingly to the young people, here
Lady ---- failed them. The coming man and woman were all very
fine--some ages hence--but to have them appear in conventional,
censorious London, in the century we live in, and in the bosom of her
family, was too much for her heroism--'Her hereditary instincts,
cowardice, and training,' her son said. Herbert might marry Mimi at any
moment; no one could ask of the Fates a more lovable wife and
daughter-in-law; but it was nonsense--worse, it was wickedness--to
dream of living after or up to their convictions in society as now
constituted. Did Herbert think for a moment what would befall Mimi if
she acted as her generosity and all their ideas would prompt her? It
would be destruction--simple destruction to the child, and if her son
could not sacrifice his principles to his love, then he was bound in
honor and pity, living in this unhappy time, to sacrifice his heart. At
any rate Mimi must be pro