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.

Miranda, having shook off her crawling acquaintances, watched them glancing along the foul floor in the darkness, and went moodily on.
"It was three years ago when I was fifteen years old, as I told you, that a change took place in my life.