I see but one side of the quadrangle is left, though it be easy to trace where the other three have stood." "And you may see their stones and their fittings in the butcher's and baker's stalls over the way," replied Sibyll.
"Ay!" said the Nevile, "the parings of the gentry begin to be the wealth of the varlets." "Little ought we to pine at that," returned Sibyll, "if the varlets were but gentle with our poverty; but they loathe the humbled fortunes on which they rise, and while slaves to the rich, are tyrants to the poor." This was said so sadly, that the Nevile felt his eyes overflow; and the humble dress of the girl, the melancholy ridges which evinced the site of a noble house, now shrunk into a dismal ruin, the remembrance of the pastime-ground, the insults of the crowd, and the broken gittern, all conspired to move his compassion, and to give force to yet more tender emotions.
"Ah," he said suddenly, and with a quick faint blush over his handsome and manly countenance,--"ah, fair maid--fair Sibyll--God grant that I may win something of gold and fortune amidst yonder towers, on which the sun shines so cheerly.

God grant it, not for my sake,--not for mine; but that I may have something besides a true heart and a stainless name to lay at thy feet.

Oh, Sibyll! By this hand, by my father's soul, I love thee, Sibyll! Have I not said it before?
Well, hear me now,--I love thee!" As he spoke, he clasped her hand in his own, and she suffered it for one instant to rest in his.

Then withdrawing it, and meeting his enamoured eyes with a strange sadness in her own darker, deeper, and more intelligent orbs, she said,-- "I thank thee,--thank thee for the honour of such kind thoughts; and frankly I answer, as thou hast frankly spoken.

It was sweet to me, who have known little in life not hard and bitter,--sweet to wish I had a brother like thee, and, as a brother, I can love and pray for thee.
But ask not more, Marmaduke.