formation of his abstract ideas, by his father's opinions. Why
then a woman?"

"Why, indeed?" Alan answered. "There I quite agree with you. I
was thinking not so much of what is right and reasonable as of what
is practical and usual. For most women, of course, are--well, more
or less dependent upon their fathers."

"But I am not," Herminia answered, with a faint suspicion of just
pride in the undercurrent of her tone. "That's in part why I went
away so soon from Girton. I felt that if women are ever to be
free, they must first of all be independent. It is the dependence
of women that has allowed men to make laws for them, socially and
ethically. So I wouldn't stop at Girton, partly because I felt the
life was one-sided,--our girls thought and talked of nothing else
on earth except Herodotus, trigonometry, and the higher culture,--
but partly also because I wouldn't be dependent on any man, not
even my own father. It left me freer to act and think as I would.
So I threw Girton overboard, and came up to live in London."

"I see," Alan replied. "You wouldn't let your schooling interfere
with your education. And now you support yourself?" he went on
quite frankly.

Herminia nodded assent.

"Yes, I support myself," she answered; "in part by teaching at a
high school for girls, and in part by doing a little hack-work for
newspapers."