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As to Frank, no doubt ever approached him He was intoxicated, and

beside hi

nothing of the vice by which somen are overcome, and

woman hitherto had been a mystery to him Suddenly he found himself

the possessor of a beautiful creature, whose lips it was lawful to

touch and whose heartbeats he could feel as he pressed her to his

breast It was permitted him to be alone with her, to sit on the

floor and rest his head on her knees, and he had ventured to capture

one of her slippers and carry it off to London, where he kept it

locked up ast his treasures If he had been drawn over Fenmarket

sluice in a winter flood he would not have been more incapable of

resistance

Every now and then Clara thought she discerned in Madge that she was

not entirely content, but the cloud-shadoept past so rapidly and