If you had not undergone an agonized awakening, all the great realities of life--love, hatred, temptation, enthusiasm--would have remained for you as they have remained for Sybell, merely pretty words to string on light conversation.

That is why I can't bear to hear her speak of them, because every word she says proves she has not known them.

But the sword that pierced your heart forced an entrance for angels, who had been knocking where there was no door--until then." Silence.
"Since when is it that people have turned to you for comfort and sympathy ?" No answer.
"Rachel, on your oath, did you ever really care for the London poor until you became poor yourself, and lived among them ?" "No." "But they were there all the time.

You saw them in the streets.

It was not as if you only heard of them.