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Prisoners Fast Bound In Misery And Iron By: Mary Cholmondeley (1859-1925) |
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PRISONERS FAST BOUND IN MISERY AND IRON By MARY CHOLMONDELEY Author of "Red Pottage"
"But for failing of love on our
part, therefore is all our travail." JULIAN OF NORWICH.
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
NEW YORK MCMVI Copyright, 1905, 1906, by COLVER PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1906, by MARY CHOLMONDELEY Published, September, 1906
To
My Brother
Reginald ILLUSTRATIONS
"Her eyes turned towards it mechanically
because it contained ... the man of
whom she was thinking" Frontispiece "A deathlike silence followed the delegato's
words" Page 36 "'Is she worth it?' he said with sudden
passion" " 46 "'You are all blinder one than the other, that
it's Andrea I'm grieving for'" " 80 "If Fay had come in then he would have killed
her, done her to death with the chains he
had worn so patiently for her sake" " 146 "Fay noticed for the first time how lightly
Wentworth walked, how square his shoulders
were" " 184
CHAPTER I Grim Fate was tender, contemplating you,
And fairies brought their offerings at your birth;
You take the rose leaf pathway as your due,
Your rightful meed the choicest gifts of earth. ARTHUR C. LEGGE.
Fay stood on her balcony, and looked over the ilexes of her villa at
Frascati; out across the grey green of the Campagna to the little
compressed city which goes by the great name of Rome. How small it looked, what a huddled speck with a bubble dome, to be
represented by so stupendous a name! She gazed at it without seeing it. Her eyes turned towards it
mechanically because it contained somewhere within its narrow precincts
the man of whom she was thinking, of whom she was always thinking. It was easy to see that Fay the Duchess of Colle Alto was an
Englishwoman, in spite of her historic Italian name. She had the look of perfect though not robust health, the reflection
over her whole being of a childhood spent much in the open air. She was
twenty three, but her sweet fair face, with its delicate irregular
features, was immature, childish. It gave no impression of experience,
or thought, or of having met life. She was obviously not of those who
criticise or judge themselves. In how many faces we see the conflict, or
the remains of conflict with a dual nature. Fay, as she was called by
her family, seemed all of a piece with herself. Her unharassed
countenance showed it, especially when, as at this moment, she looked
harassed. Anxiety was evidently a foreign element. It sat ill upon her
smooth face, as if it might slide off at any moment. Fay's violet eyes
were her greatest charm. She looked at you with a deprecating, timid,
limpid gaze, in which no guile existed, any more than steadfastness, any
more than unselfishness, any more than courage. Fay had come into the world anxious to please. She had never shown any
particular wish to give pleasure. If she had been missed out of her
somewhat oppressed and struggling home when she married, it is probable
that the sense of her absence was tinged by relief. She had never intended to marry the Duke of Colle Alto. It is difficult
to say why that sedate distinguished personage married her. Fay's face had a very sweet and endearing promise in it which drew men's
eyes after her. I don't know what it meant, and they did not know
either, but they instinctively lessened the distance between themselves
and it. A very thin string will tow a very heavy body if there is no
resistance, and the pace is slow. The duke looked at Fay, who was at
that moment being taken out for her first season by her grandmother,
Lady Bellairs. Fay tried to please him, as was her wont with all except
men with beards. She liked to have him in attendance... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
Romance |
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