As I sat by myself in the evenings, I used to feel a strange certainty of conviction I cannot describe, that if a magician or a genius had, at that moment, offered me Prince Ali's tube (you remember it in the 'Arabian Nights'?), and if, with its aid, I had been enabled to take a view of Robert--to see where he was, how occupied--I should have learned, in a startling manner, the width of the chasm which gaped between such as he and such as I. I knew that, however my thoughts might adhere to him, his were effectually sundered from me."

As I sat by myself in the evenings, I used to feel a strange conviction that if I could magically see Robert - where he was, how occupied - I should learn the width of the chasm between us."
