He wished still
to marry Sybil for the great object that we have stated; he
had a mind quite equal to appreciate her admirable qualities,
but sense enough to wish that she were a less dazzling
creature, because then he would have a better chance of
accomplishing his end. He perceived when he had had a due
opportunity to study her character, that the cloister was the
natural catastrophe impending over a woman who, with an
exalted mind, great abilities, a fine and profound education
and almost supernatural charms, found herself born and rooted
in the ranks of a degraded population. All this Hatton
understood; it was a conclusion he had gradually arrived at by
a gradual process of induction and by a vigilant observation
that in its study of character had rarely been deceived; and
when one evening with an art that could not be suspected, he
sounded Gerard on the future of his daughter, he found that
the clear intellect and straight-forward sagacity of the
father had arrived at the same result. "She wishes," said
Gerard, "to take the veil, and I only oppose it for a time,
that she may have some knowledge of life and a clear
conception of what she is about to do. I wish not that she
should hereafter reproach her father.
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