"
"Yes," he retorted, "all but the abomination of desolation."
"But do you consider," said Fred, "how many sweet birds may be looking
out through the bars of those bright lattice cages even now, who can
follow neither their hearts' desires nor their souls' aspirations, but
whom fate has degraded to be the slaves of some miserable old Blue
Beard?"
"Why don't you sail in and rescue some of them?" said Mike mockingly.
"Tell the old tyrant to his cerulean beard that he has too many strings
to his bow, and he will undoubtedly spare a bow-string to twine around
your manly neck. But I guess you had better, after all, leave the
Fatimas to their fate. The barriers that fence them in from their
hearts' desires and souls' aspirations here are not more real, if more
palpable, than those that guard them in our land of boasted freedom;
neither are they altogether secure from sale and barter there; and as
for us outside barbarians, I'd as lief be shut out by palace walls from
a beauty I can only imagine, as by custom still more insurmountable
from beauty set visibly before me and enhanced with intellectual and
social graces.
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