"
"If anything that I said finds an echo in your breast," and
here he hesitated, "--it will give me confidence for the
future," he hurriedly added.
"Ah! why do not others feel like you!" said Sybil, "all would
not then be hopeless."
"But you are not hopeless," said Egremont, and he seated
himself on the bench, but at some distance from her.
Sybil shook her head.
"But when we spoke last," said Egremont, "you were full of
confidence--in your cause, and in your means."
"It is not very long ago," said Sybil, "since we thus spoke,
and yet time in the interval has taught me some bitter
truths."
"Truth is very precious," said Egremont, "to us all; and yet I
fear I could not sufficiently appreciate the cause that
deprived you of your sanguine faith."
"Alas!" said Sybil mournfully, "I was but a dreamer of dreams:
I wake from my hallucination as others have done I suppose
before me. Like them too I feel the glory of life has gone;
but my content at least," and she bent her head meekly, "has
never rested I hope too much on this world."
"You are depressed, dear Sybil?"
"I am unhappy. I am anxious about my father. I fear that he
is surrounded by men unworthy of his confidence.
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