Then looking up with an expression grave
but serene, and as if she had just emerged from some deep
thinking, Sybil said, "I am sorry for my words; sorry for the
pain I unconsciously gave you; sorry indeed for all that has
past: and that my father has lost a pleasant friend."
"And why should he be lost?" said Egremont mournfully, and
yet with tenderness. "Why should we not still befriends?"
"Oh, sir!" said Sybil, haughtily; "I am one of those who
believe the gulf is impassable. Yes," she added, slightly but
with singular grace waving her hands, and somewhat turning
away her head, "utterly impassable."
There are tumults of the mind when like the great convulsions
of nature all seems anarchy and returning chaos, yet often in
those moments of vast disturbance, as in the material strife
itself, some new principle of order, or some new impulse of
conduct, develops itself, and controls and regulates and
brings to an harmonious consequence, passions and elements
which seemed only to threaten despair and subversion. So it
was with Egremont. He looked for a moment in despair upon
this maiden walled out from sympathy by prejudices and
convictions more impassable than all the mere consequences of
class.
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