tected.

"But the young man could not deny his principles, and would not deny
his selfishness; so Lady ---- sent Mimi from her, obtaining her a good
position in one of the best schools at Brighton, begging the lady
principal, an old friend of her own, to keep upon the young girl a
watch that might almost be called a guard. She remained there a few
months, and then, one fine morning, was suddenly missing, and Lady ----
received a note from her, posted in London, to say that it was useless
to struggle longer; Herbert was bitterly unhappy and disappointed in
her, reflected on her want of love and courage, and that she, Mimi, had
chosen her part, and meant to see if one could not honestly live one's
frank life in the London of to-day.

"Lady ----'s expostulations with her son were useless. 'I like what you
have taught me, mother, and my conscience is in the matter.'

"And the same delicate conscience prevented him from supporting Mimi
pecuniarily. He said, and she confirmed, that there should be no tie
between them but love--that no other gift was fitting from one to the
other. The woman of the future would have no need of protection, or to
barter herself for care and a home; she would love out of a sphere of
fine, grand independence, self-reliance--so would and should Mimi. Poor
girl! her sphere of independence has been anything but grand and fine:
a life in shifting, third-rate lodgings, under an alias, for, keeping
her maiden style, it was simply impossible with her means to secure
anywhere a reputable shelter, singing in concerts to support herself,
and getting now and then a few lessons to give where people don't
inquire too closely if they can secure good teaching cheaply, but
bereft of all friends save a few pitying ones who now and then come to
her relief, with no young brightness in her life, separated from her
children, for she has three or four who are inexpensively taken care of
at a farm in Cumberland, at a distance too great for her to see them
save for a short autumn holiday; seeing Herbert sometimes only at very
long intervals, for he goes abroad frequently for long absences, and
leaves her with scanter ceremony than most men bestow upon a faithful
dog--the mean-spirited good-for-naught!--shabbily clad, and living,
like a rock hermit, on bread, fruit, and a salad, to make the money
cover as far as may her own and her children's simplest needs. One
can't wonder that Lady ----'s beautiful hair has turned fro