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Prisoners (fast bound in misery and iron) (1906)
Prisoners - fast bound in misery and iron - 1906 Author:Mary Cholmondeley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: she had any affection—had all the violent recoils, the mutinous anger, the sudden desire to wound on the ,one side, all the tender patience and grieved understan... more »ding on the other which are the outcome of a real attachment between a bond woman and a free one. The one craved, the other relinquished; the one was consumed with unrest, the other had reached some inner stronghold of peace. The one was imprisoned in self, the other was freed, released. The one made demands, the other was willing to serve. It seems as if only the free can serve. " I am very miserable," said Fay suddenly. She was pushed once more by the same blind impulse that had taken her to her husband's room the night after Michael's arrest. She used almost the same words. And as the duke had made no answer then, so Magdalen made none now. She had not lived in the same house with Fay for nearly a year for nothing. Magdalen's silence acted as a goad. " You think, and father thinks," continued Fay, her voice shaking, " you are all blinder one than the other, that it's Andrea I'm grieving for. It's not." " I know that," said Magdalen. " You never cared much about him. I have often wondered what it could be that was distressing you so deeply." Fay winced. Magdalen had noticed something, after all. " I have sometimes feared,"—continued Magdalen with the deliberation of one who has long since made up her mind not to speak until the opening conies, and not to be silent when it does come—" I have sometimesfeared that your heart was locked up in an Italian prison." " My heart!" said Fay, and her visible astonishment at a not very astonishing inference was not lost on Magdalen. " My heart!" she laughed bitterly. " Do you really suppose after all I've suffered, all I've gone through, that I'm so silly a...« less