"
"The morrow is unforeseen," said Ursula. "Happy indeed would
it be for me, my Sybil, that your innocence should be
enshrined within these holy walls, and that the pupil of my
best years, and the friend of my serene life, should be my
successor in this house. But I feel a deep persuasion that
the hour has not arrived for you to take the step that never
can be recalled."
So saying, Ursula embraced and dismissed Sybil; for the
conversation, the last passages of which we have given, had
Occurred when Sybil according to her wont on Saturday
afternoon had come to request the permission of the Lady
Superior to visit her father.
It was in a tolerably spacious and not discomfortable chamber,
the first floor over the printing-office of the Mowbray
Phalanx, that Gerard had found a temporary home. He had not
long returned from his factory, and pacing the chamber with a
disturbed step, he awaited the expected arrival of his
daughter.
She came; the faithful step, the well-known knock; the father
and the daughter embraced; he pressed to his heart the child
who had clung to him through so many trials, and who had
softened so many sorrows, who had been the visiting angel in
his cell, and whose devotion had led captivity captive.
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