How were they to know that the
creature they had reared and made ever had a thought of her own -
ever wondered who she was, where she came from, what she was
destined to be, and what lay in the great world beyond? The
crooked little monster made a great mistake in teaching me to
read, he should have known that books sow seed that grow up and
flourish tall and green, till they become giants in strength. I
knew enough to be certain there was a bright and glad world
without, from which they shut me in and debarred me; and I knew
enough to hate them both for it, with a strong and heartfelt
hatred, only second to what I feel now."
She stopped for a moment, and fixed her dark, gloomy eyes on the
swarming floor, and shook off, with out a shudder, the hideous
things that crawled over her rich dress. She had scarcely looked
at Sir Norman since she began to speak, but he had done enough
looking for them both, never once taking his eyes from the
handsome darkening face. He thought how strangely like her story
was to Leoline's - both shut in and isolated from the outer
world. Verily, destiny seemed to have woven the woof and warp of
their fates wonderfully together, for their lives were as much
the same as their faces.
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