Part 49 (1/2)
”And you were anxious to do so.”
”Most anxious; my mind is prophetic only of mischief to him if we remain.”
”Mine too. Otherwise I should not have come up today.” ”You have seen him I hope?” said Sybil.
”I have; I have been hours with him.”
”I am glad. At this conference he talked of?”
”Yes; at this headstrong council; and I have seen him since; alone.
Whatever hap to him, my conscience is a.s.soiled.”
”You terrify me, Stephen,” said Sybil rising from her seat. ”What can happen to him? What would he do, what would you resist? Tell me--tell me, dear friend.”
”Oh! yes,” said Morley, pale and with a slight yet bitter smile. ”Oh!
yes; dear friend!”
”I said dear friend for so I deemed you.” said Sybil; ”and so we have ever found you. Why do you stare at me so strangely, Stephen?”
”So you deem me, and so you have ever found me,” said Morley in a slow and measured tone, repeating her words. ”Well; what more would you have?
What more should any of us want?” he asked abruptly.
”I want no more,” said Sybil innocently.
”I warrant me, you do not. Well, well, nothing matters. And so,” he added in his ordinary tone, ”you are waiting for your father?”
”Whom you have not long since seen,” said Sybil, ”and whom you expected to find here?”
”No;” said Morley, shaking his head with the same bitter smile; ”no, no.
I didn't. I came to find you.”
”You have something to tell me,” said Sybil earnestly. ”Something has happened to my father. Do not break it to me; tell me at once,” and she advanced and laid her hand upon his arm.
Morley trembled; and then in a hurried and agitated voice, said, ”No, no, no; nothing has happened. Much may happen, but nothing has happened.
And we may prevent it.”
”We! Tell me what may happen; tell me what to do.”
”Your father,” said Morley, slowly, rising from his seat and pacing the room, and speaking in a low calm voice, ”Your father--and my friend--is in this position Sybil: he is conspiring against the State.”
”Yes, yes,” said Sybil very pale, speaking almost in a whisper and with her gaze fixed intently on her companion. ”Tell me all.”
”I will. He is conspiring, I say, against the State. Tonight they meet in secret to give the last finish to their plans; and tonight they will be arrested.”
”O G.o.d!” said Sybil clasping her hands. ”He told me truth.”
”Who told you truth?” said Morley, springing to her side, in a hoa.r.s.e voice and with an eye of fire.