If you open the window we
shall catch cold; but I will rise and help you to dress."
This woman, like her husband, was naturally kind, and at once
influenced by Sybil. They both treated her as a superior
being; and if, instead of the daughter of a lowly prisoner and
herself a prisoner, she had been the noble child of a captive
minister of state, they could not have extended to her a more
humble and even delicate solicitude.
It had not yet struck seven, and the wife of the inspector
suddenly stopping and listening, said, "They are stirring
early:" and then, after a moment's pause, she opened the door,
at which she stood for some time endeavouring to catch the
meaning of the mysterious sounds. She looked back at Sybil,
and saying, "Hush, I shall be back directly," she withdrew,
shutting the door.
In little more than two hours, as Sybil had been informed, she
would be summoned to her examination. It was a sickening
thought. Hope vanished as the catastrophe advanced. She
almost accused herself for having without authority sought out
her father; it had been as regarded him a fruitless mission,
and, by its results on her, had aggravated his present sorrows
and perplexities.
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