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"But you--you never served the sentence--such a vindictive sentence, too!"

"Yes, I did" For the first tiedy appeared in her studiously passionless eyes "You look surprised, but I assure you it is true I served o"

"Eight weeks? But you have only just come here?"

"Yes First I went down into Kent to stay with an old fairl--while I was"--she hesitated, then spoke with a directness he felt to be brutal--"in prison I only caironically noas too much for my--nerves"

"But, Mrs Carstairs"--he looked down at her with perplexity in his face--"do I understand you to mean you have deliberately come back to live in the place which has treated you so sha, blue eyes were inscrutable "I' back You see, I really don't care in the very least what these people say about me I don't even bear them malice Prison life is supposed to make one bitter, isn't it? You hear a lot about the 'prison taint,' whatever thatsustained any taint I have suffered a great wrong"--her contralto voice was quite unrievous injustice has been done to me; but now that the physical unpleasantness of the ordeal is over I don't feel as though I--radation"

"I suppose"--the question was forced fro before his eyes--"I suppose what you call the physical unpleasantness is really hard to bear?"

He was sorry he had put the question as he saw the slow shudder which for a moment convulsed her immobility

"Yes" For a second her voice was almost passionate "I don't think I could make you understand the horror of that side of imprisonment Most prison reformers, as I say, prate of the injury done to the soul of the prisoner For my part--it if orth while, which it isn't--I would always refuse to forgive those enenities"