ents by flashes of very desperate
caring, when suddenly the love of life, the desire for happiness and
experience, for the exercise of her power, for its use in the service of
her generation, became intense, and then faded away again, as obstacles
presented their formidable array before the mind. In the midst of the
confusion the thought of the Professor hovered vaguely, with a dim
distressing sense of something wrong, of something within her lost and
wretched and forlorn.

Mrs. Fullerton passed through the room on the arm of Mr. Gordon. How
delighted her mother would be if she were to give up this desperate
attempt to hold out against her appointed fate. What if her mother and
Mrs. Gordon and all the world were perfectly right and far-seeing and
wise? Did it not seem more likely, on the face of it, that they _should_
be right, considering the enormous majority of those who would agree
with them, than that she, Hadria, a solitary girl, unsupported by
knowledge of life or by fellow-believers, should have chanced upon the
truth? Had only Valeria been on her side, she would have felt secure,
but Valeria was dead against her.

"We are not really at variance, believe me," Temperley pleaded. "You
state things rather more strongly than I do--a man used to knocking
about the world--but I don't believe there is any radical difference
between us." He worked himself up into the belief that there never were
two human beings so essentially at one, on all points, as he and Hadria.

"Do you remember the debate that evening in the garret? Do you remember
the sentiments that scared your sister so much?" she asked.

Temperley remembered.

"Well, I don't hold those sentiments merely for amusement and
recreation. I mean them. I should not hesitate a moment to act upon
them. If things grew intolerable, according to my view of things, I
should simply go away, though twenty marriage-services had been read
over my head. Neither Algitha nor I have any of the notions that
restrain women in these matters. We would brook no such bonds. The usual
claims and demands we would neither make nor submit to. You heard
Algitha speak very plainly on the matter. So you see, we are entirely
unsuitable as wives, except to the impossible men who might share our
rebellion. Please let us go back to the hall. They are just beginning to
dance another reel."

"I cannot let you go back. Oh, Hadria, you can't be so unjust as to
force me to break off in this sta