"
Egremont mused: he must disclose all, yet how embarrassing to
enter into such explanations in a public thoroughfare! Should
he bid her after a-while farewell, and then make his
confession in writing? Should he at once accompany her home,
and there offer his perplexing explanations? Or should he
acknowledge his interview of yesterday with Gerard, and then
leave the rest to the natural consequences of that
acknowledgment when Sybil met her father! Thus pondering,
Egremont and Sybil, quitting the court of the Abbey, entered
Abingdon Street.
"Let me walk home with you," said Egremont, as Sybil seemed to
intimate her intention here to separate.
"My father is not there," said Sybil; "but I will not fail to
tell him that I have met his old companion."
"Would he had been as frank!" thought Egremont. And must he
quit her in this way. Never! "You must indeed let me attend
you!" he said aloud.
"It is not far," said Sybil. "We live almost in the Precinct-
-in an old house with some kind old people, the brother of one
of the nuns of Mowbray. The nearest way to it is straight
along this street, but that is too bustling for me. I have
discovered," she added with a smile, "a more tranquil path.
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