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Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950

"A Spirit in Prison"


For an instant he yielded his spirit to this sound of eternal
striving. Then he said:
"Hermione!"
No one answered.
"Hermione!"
He raised his voice. He almost called the name.
Still there was no answer. Yet the silence seemed to tell him that she
was near.
He did not call again. He waited a moment, then he stepped into the
passage.
The room to which it led was the central room, or hall, of the palace
--a vaulted chamber, high and narrow, opening to the sea at one end by
the great doorway already mentioned, to the land beneath the cliff by
a smaller doorway at the other. The faint light from without,
penetrating through these facing doorways, showed to Artois a sort of
lesser darkness, towards which he walked slowly, feeling his way along
the wall. When he reached the hall he again stood still, trying to get
accustomed to the strange and eerie obscurity, to pierce it with his
eyes.
Now to his left, evidently within the building, and not far from where
he stood, he heard almost loudly the striving of the sea.


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