peculiar
adventures now and again; a man without human passions is not the type
necessary for an adventurous life, such as I myself have had. But even a
man of passions and experiences can, when he respects a woman, be
shocked--even prudish--where his own opinion of her is concerned. Such
must bring to her guarding any generosity which he has, and any
self-restraint also. Even should she place herself in a doubtful
position, her honour calls to his honour. This is a call which may not
be--_must_ not be--unanswered. Even passion must pause for at least a
while at sound of such a trumpet-call.

This woman I did respect--much respect. Her youth and beauty; her
manifest ignorance of evil; her superb disdain of convention, which could
only come through hereditary dignity; her terrible fear and
suffering--for there must be more in her unhappy condition than meets the
eye--would all demand respect, even if one did not hasten to yield it.
Nevertheless, I thought it necessary to enter a protest against her
embarrassing suggestion. I certainly did feel a fool when making it,
also a cad. I can truly say it was made only for her good, and out of
the best of me, such as I am. I felt impossibly awkward; and stuttered
and stumbled before I spoke:

"But surely--the convenances! Your being here alone at night! Mrs.
Grundy--convention--the--"

She interrupted me with an incomparable dignity--a dignity which had the
effect of shutting me up like a clasp-knife and making me feel a decided
inferior--and a poor show at that. There was such a gracious simplicity
and honesty in it, too, such self-respecting knowledge of herself and her
position, that I could be neither angry nor hurt. I could only feel
ashamed of myself, and of my own littleness of mind and morals. She
seemed in her icy coldness--now spiritual as well as bodily--like an
incarnate figure of Pride as she answered:

"What are convenances or conventions to me! If you only knew where I
have come from--the existence (if it can be called so) which I have
had--the loneliness--the horror! And besides, it is for me to _make_
conventions, not to yield my personal freedom of action to them. Even as
I am--even here and in this garb--I am above convention. Convenances do
not trouble me or hamper me. That, at least, I have won by what I have
gone through, even if it had never come to me through any other way. Let
me stay." She said the last words, in spite of all he