But those human beings who
have suffered from it do in very truth feel as though they had been
caught up into another world, a world of slavery, moral galley-
driving with a master high above them, driving them with a lash that
their chained limbs may not resist. Such men, if they try to explain
that torment, can often point to the very day and even hour of their
sudden slavery; at such a tick of the clock the clouds gather, the
very houses and street are weighted with a cold malignity, thoughts,
desires, impulses are all checked, perverted, driven and counter-
driven by a mysterious force. Let no man who has not known such
hours and the terror of such a dominion utter judgment upon his
neighbour.
To Martin the threat of this conflict with his father over Maggie
was the one crisis that he had wished to avoid. But his character,
which was naturally easy and friendly and unsuspicious, had confused
him. Those three weeks with Maggie had been so happy, so free from
all morbidity and complication, that he had forgotten the world
outside. For a moment when Maggie had told him that she had given
her note to Caroline he had been afraid, but he had been lulled as
the days passed and nothing interfered with their security.
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