never to be at peace again?_ Was she never to know
what it is to lie down in peace at night, never to know what it is to be
without fear. Her whole soul yearned for peace, as the sick man yearns
for sleep. Andrea had prayed that she might find peace. Magdalen had
told her where peace lay. But all that she had found was despair.

On her way homewards she came again upon the clearing and stopped short.
The place seemed to have undergone some subtle change. A tall figure
was standing motionless in it. The face was turned away, but Fay
recognised it instantly. As she came close Magdalen turned. For a moment
Fay saw that she did not recognise her, that she was withdrawn into a
great peace and light.

Then recognition dawned in Magdalen's eyes and with it came a look of
tenderness unspeakable.

"Fay," she said in a great compassion. "How much longer will you torture
yourself and Michael? How much longer will you keep him in prison?"

Fay was transfixed.

Those were the same words that Andrea had said on his deathbed. Those
words were alive, though he was dead. Never to any living creature, not
even to Magdalen, had she repeated them. Yet Magdalen was saying them.
She could not withstand them any longer. The very stones would shriek
them out next.

She fell at Magdalen's feet with a cry.

"I will speak," she gasped in mortal terror. "I will speak." And she
clung for very life to her sister's knees, and hid her face in her
gown.

CHAPTER XXII

To-day unbind the captive,
So only are ye unbound.

--EMERSON.

The following afternoon saw Magdalen and Fay driving together to
Lostford, to consult the Bishop as to what steps it would be advisable
to take in the matter of Michael's release. Magdalen felt it would be
well-nigh impossible to go direct to Wentworth, even if he had been at
Barford. But he had been summoned to London the day before on urgent
business. And with Fay even a day's delay might mean a change of mind.
It was essential to act at once.

But to Magdalen's surprise Fay did not try to draw back. When the
carriage came to the door she got into it. She assented to everything,
was ready to do anything Magdalen told her. She was like one stunned.
She had at last closed with the inevitable. She had found it too strong
for her.

Did Fay realise how frightfully she had complicated her position by her
own folly? She lay back in her corner of the brougham with her eyes
shut, pallid, silen