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Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950

"A Spirit in Prison"

"
"I found it out."
"You knew?"
"I went to Vere's room. The poems were on the table with your
corrections. I read them."
"We ought to have told you."
"I oughtn't to have read them, but I did."
"A mother has the right--"
"Not a mother who has resigned her right to question her child. I had
said to Vere, 'Keep your secrets.' So I had no right, and I did wrong
in reading them."
He felt that she was instinctively trying to match his sincerity with
hers, and that fact helped him to continue.
"The knowledge of this budding talent of Vere's made me take a new
interest in her, made me wish very much--at least I thought, I
believed it was that, Hermione--that no disturbing influence should
come into her life. Isidoro Panacci came--through me. Peppina came--
through you. Hermione, on the night when Vere and I went out alone
together in the boat Vere learned the truth about Peppina and the life
behind the shutter."
"I knew that, too."
"You knew it?"
"Yes. I suspected something.


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