Chapter 21

Next morning early, Dolly left Combe Neville on her way to London.
When she reached the station, Walter was on the platform with a
bunch of white roses. He handed them to her deferentially as she
took her seat in the third-class carriage; and so sobered was Dolly
by this great misfortune that she forgot even to feel a passing
pang of shame that Walter should see her travel in that humble
fashion. "Remember," he whispered in her ear, as the train steamed
out, "we are still engaged; I hold you to your promise."

And Dolly, blushing maidenly shame and distress, shook her head
decisively. "Not now," she answered. "I must wait till I know the
truth. It has always been kept from me. And now I WILL know it."

She had not slept that night. All the way up to London, she kept
turning her doubt over. The more she thought of it, the deeper it
galled her. Her wrath waxed bitter against Herminia for this evil
turn she had wrought. The smouldering anger of years blazed forth
at last. Had she blighted her daughter's life, and spoiled so fair
a future by obstinate adherence to those preposterous ideas of
hers?

Never in her life had Dolly loved her mother. At best, she had
felt towards her that contemptuous toleration which inferior minds
often extend to higher ones. And now--why, she hated her.

In London, as it happened, that very morning, Herminia, walking
across Regent's Park, had fallen in with Harvey Kynaston, and their
talk had turned upon this self-same problem.

"What will you do when she asks you about it, as she must, sooner
or later?" the man inquired.

And Herminia, smiling that serene sweet smile of hers, made answer
at once without a second's hesitation, "I shall confess the whole
truth to her."

"But it might be so bad for her," Harvey Kynaston went on. And
then he proceeded to bring up in detail casuistic objections on
the score of a young girl's modesty; all of which fell flat on
Herminia's more honest and consistent temperament.

"I believe in the truth," she said simply; "and I'm never afraid of
it. I don't think a lie, or even a suppression, can ever be good
in the end for any one. The Truth shall make you Free. That one
principle in life can guide one through everything."

In the evening, when Dolly came home, her mother ran out proudly
and affectionately to kiss her. But Dolly drew back her face with
a gesture of displeasure, nay, almost of shrinking. "Not now,
mother!" she cried. "I have something to ask you about. Till I
know the truth, I can never kiss you."

Herminia's face turned deadly white; she knew it had come at last.
But still