er not talked about," said
Gertrude White, curtly, as she rose and went indoors.

Miss White betook herself to her professional and domestic duties with
much alacrity and content, for she believed that by her skill as a
letter-writer she could easily ward off the importunities of her too
passionate lover. It is true that at times, and in despite of her
playful evasion, she was visited by a strange dread. However far away,
the cry of a strong man in his agony had something terrible in it. And
what was this he wrote to her in simple and calm words?--

"Are our paths diverging, Gerty? and if that is so, what will be the end
of it for me and for you? Are you going away from me? After all that has
passed, are we to be separated in the future, and you will go one way
and I must go the other way, with all the world between us, so that I
shall never see you again? Why will you not speak? You hint of lingering
doubts and hesitations. Why have you not the courage to be true to
yourself--to be true to your woman's heart--to take your life in your
own hands, and shape it so that it shall be worthy of you?"

Well, she did speak in answer to this piteous prayer. She was a skilful
letter-writer:

"It may seem very ungrateful in an actress, you know, dear Keith, to
contest the truth of anything said by Shakespeare; but I don't think,
with all humility, there ever was so much nonsense put into so small a
space as there is in these lines that everybody quotes at your head--

"To thine own self be true
And it must follow, as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

"'Be true to yourself,' people say to you. But surely every one who is
conscious of failings, and deceitfulness, and unworthy instincts, would
rather try to be a little better than himself? Where else would there be
any improvement, in an individual or in society? You have to fight
against yourself, instead of blindly yielding to your wish of the
moment. I know I, for one, should not like to trust myself. I wish to be
better than I am--to be other than I am--and I naturally look around
for help and guidance. Then, you find people recommending you absolutely
diverse ways of life, and with all show of authority and reason, too;
and in such an important matter ought not one to consider before making
a final choice?"

Miss White's studies in mental and moral science, as will readily be
perceived, had not been of a profound charac