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Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950

"A Spirit in Prison"

His heart was flooded by conviction that cruelty has an end,
that the most relentless fate fails at last in its pursuing, that the
/fattura della morte/, if it brought death with it, brought a death
that was not of the body, brought, perhaps, a beautiful death of
something that had lived too long.
He banished fear, and he entered the chamber on the right. It was lit
only by an opening looking to the sea. As he came into it he saw a
tall thing--like a tall shadow--pass close to him and disappear. He
saw that, and he heard the faint sound of material in movement.
There was then still another chamber on this side, and Hermione had
passed into it. He followed her in silence, came to the doorway of it,
looked, saw black darkness. There was no other opening either to sea
or land. In it Hermione had found what she sought--absolute blackness.
But he had found her. Here she could not escape him.
He stood in the doorway. He remembered Vere's trust in him. He
remembered Gaspare's trust.


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