uggle; and I should die content if the People were only
free, and a Gerard had freed them."

Egremont mused: he must disclose all, yet how embarrassing to enter
into such explanations in a public thoroughfare! Should he bid her after
a-while farewell, and then make his confession in writing? Should he at
once accompany her home, and there offer his perplexing explanations? Or
should he acknowledge his interview of yesterday with Gerard, and then
leave the rest to the natural consequences of that acknowledgment when
Sybil met her father! Thus pondering, Egremont and Sybil, quitting the
court of the Abbey, entered Abingdon Street.

"Let me walk home with you," said Egremont, as Sybil seemed to intimate
her intention here to separate.

"My father is not there," said Sybil; "but I will not fail to tell him
that I have met his old companion."

"Would he had been as frank!" thought Egremont. And must he quit her in
this way. Never! "You must indeed let me attend you!" he said aloud.

"It is not far," said Sybil. "We live almost in the Precinct--in an
old house with some kind old people, the brother of one of the nuns of
Mowbray. The nearest way to it is straight along this street, but that
is too bustling for me. I have discovered," she added with a smile, "a
more tranquil path." And guided by her they turned up College Street.

"And how long have you been in London?"

"A fortnight. 'Tis a great prison. How strange it is that, in a vast
city like this, one can scarcely walk alone?"

"You want Harold," said Egremont. "How is that most faithful of
friends?"

"Poor Harold! To part with him too was a pang."

"I fear your hours must be heavy," said Egremont.

"Oh! no," said Sybil, "there is so much at stake; so much to hear
the moment my father returns. I take so much interest too in their
discussions; and sometimes I go to hear him speak. None of them can
compare with him. It seems to me that it would be impossible to resist
our claims if our rulers only heard them from his lips."

Egremont smiled. "Your Convention is in its bloom, or rather its bud,"
he said; "all is fresh and pure now; but a little while and it will find
the fate of all popular assemblies. You will have factions."

"But why?" said Sybil. "They are the real representatives of the people,
and all that the people want is justice; that Labour should be as much
respected by law and society as Property."

While they thus conversed they passed through