of the individual
instance. Tradition, convention, the awful examples portrayed for gain
in the movies, even her mother's pessimistic attitude in regard to the
freedom with which the sexes mingle to-day were powerless to influence
her. The thought, however, that she might fundamentally resemble her
sister Lise, despite a fancied superiority, did occasionally shake
her and bring about a revulsion against Ditmar. Janet's problem was in
truth, though she failed so to specialize it, the supreme problem of
our time: what is the path to self-realization? how achieve emancipation
from the commonplace?

Was she in love with Ditmar? The question was distasteful, she avoided
it, for enough of the tatters of orthodox Christianity clung to her to
cause her to feel shame when she contemplated the feelings he aroused
in her. It was when she asked herself what his intentions were that her
resentment burned, pride and a sense of her own value convinced her that
he had deeply insulted her in not offering marriage. Plainly, he did
not intend to offer marriage; on the other hand, if he had done so,
a profound, self-respecting and moral instinct in her would, in her
present mood, have led her to refuse. She felt a fine scorn for the
woman who, under the circumstances, would insist upon a bond and all
a man's worldly goods in return for that which it was her privilege
to give freely; while the notion of servility, of economic
dependence--though she did not so phrase it--repelled her far more than
the possibility of social ruin.

This she did not contemplate at all; her impulse to leave Hampton and
Ditmar had nothing to do with that....

Away from Ditmar, this war of inclinations possessed her waking mind,
invaded her dreams. When she likened herself to the other exploited
beings he drove to run his mills and fill his orders,--of whom Mr.
Siddons had spoken--her resolution to leave Hampton gained such definite
ascendancy that her departure seemed only a matter of hours.

In this perspective Ditmar appeared so ruthless, his purpose to use her
and fling her away so palpable, that she despised herself for having
hesitated. A longing for retaliation consumed her; she wished to
hurt him before she left. At such times, however, unforeseen events
invariably intruded to complicate her feelings and alter her plans.
One evening at supper, for instance, when she seemed at last to have
achieved the comparative peace of mind that follows a decision a