ot, what is commonly
understood by the phrase, in love with Sybil: certainly not passionately
in love with her. With all his daring and talents and fine taste, there
was in Hatton such a vein of thorough good sense, that it was impossible
for him to act or even to think anything that was ridiculous. 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. But, to my mind, Sybil is right. She
cannot look to marriage: no man that she could marry would be worthy of
her."

During these two months, and especially during the last, Morley was
rarely in London, though ever much with Gerard, and often with his
daughter during his visits. The necessary impulse had been given to the
affairs of the Convention, the delegates had visited the members, the
preparations for the presentation of the National Petition had been
completed; the overthrow of the whig government, the abortive effort
of Sir Robert Peel, the return of the whig administration, and the
consequent measures, had occasioned a delay of two months in the
presentation of the great document: it was well for Gerard to remain,
who was a leader in debate, and whose absence for a week would have
endangered his position as the head of a party, but these considerations
did not influence Morley, who had already found great i