I said I wouldn't be beaten the first time, and I won't--I won't be beaten." She paused an instant to draw breath.

"And I haven't been," she wound up in bitter triumph.
"You'll never be, darling," declared Laura; "who is there on earth to shine against you ?" The violence faded from Gerty's face, yielding to an expression of disgust, of spiritual loathing--the loathing of a creature that hates the thing it loves.
"But it isn't worth it, it isn't worth it," she moaned, pushing the papers away from her with an indignant gesture, and rising from her chair to walk hurriedly up and down the floor.

"It isn't worth it, but I'm bound to it--I can't get away.

I'm bound to the wheel.

Do you think if I could help myself--if I could be different--that I would turn into a mere bond-slave to my body?
Why, a day labourer has rest, but I haven't.