cess which reconciled her to all temporary sacrifices. The
violent prejudices, the ignorant cruelty, thus brought to bear against
existence itself, filled her with sadness, it is true, but not unmixed
with that contempt for her persecutors, which, even in the meekest
tempers, takes the sting from despair. But hunger pressed. Her father
was nearing the goal of his discoveries, and in a moment of that pride
which in its very contempt for appearances braves them all, Sibyll
had stolen out to the pastime-ground,--with what result has been seen
already. Having thus accounted for the penury of the mansion, we return
to its owner.

Warner was contemplating with evident complacency and delight the
model of a machine which had occupied him for many years, and which he
imagined he was now rapidly bringing to perfection. His hands and
face were grimed with the smoke of his forge, and his hair and beard,
neglected as usual, looked parched and dried up, as if with the constant
fever that burned within.

"Yes, yes!" he muttered, "how they will bless me for this! What Roger
Bacon only suggested I shall accomplish! How it will change the face of
the globe! What wealth it will bestow on ages yet unborn!"

"My father," said the gentle voice of Sibyll, "my poor father, thou hast
not tasted bread to-day."

Warner turned, and his face relaxed into a tender expression as he saw
his daughter.

"My child," he said, pointing to his model, "the time comes when it will
live! Patience! patience!"

"And who would not have patience with thee, and for thee, Father?" said
Sibyll, with enthusiasm speaking on every feature. "What is the valour
of knight and soldier--dull statues of steel--to thine? Thou, with
thy naked breast, confronting all dangers,--sharper than the lance and
glaive, and all--"

"All to make England great!"

"Alas! what hath England merited from men like thee? The people, more
savage than their rulers, clamour for the stake, the gibbet, and the
dungeon, for all who strive to make them wiser. Remember the death of
Bolingbroke, [A mathematician accused as an accomplice, in sorcery, of
Eleanor Cobham, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and hanged upon
that charge. His contemporary (William Wyrcestre) highly extols his
learning.]--a wizard, because, O Father!--because his pursuits were
thine!"

Adam, startled by this burst, looked at his daughter with more attention
than he usually evinced to any living thing. "Child," he