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"Miss Beverley," cried Lady Honoria, before she was seated, "I insist upon your taking my place to-day." "Why so, madam?" "Because I cannot suffer you to sit by a window with such a terrible cold." "Your ladyship is very good, but indeed I have not any cold at all." "O my dear, I must beg your pardon there; your eyes are quite bloodshot; Mrs Delvile, Lord Ernolf, are not her eyes quite red?
But Mr Delvile angrily declared, that though such a scheme might do very well for the needy Lord Ernolf, a Peer of twenty years, his own noble ancestors should never, by his consent, forfeit a name which so many centuries had rendered honourable.
"I understood my Lord Ernolf," said he, "that you had totally discouraged the addresses of his son?" "Yes, Sir," answered Cecilia, "for I never mean to receive them." "Have you, then, any other engagement?" "No, Sir," cried she, colouring between shame and displeasure, "none at all."
Cecilia thanked her for so courteous an offer, but entreated that she might by no means draw her into such a condescension. She then made immediate preparations for her journey into Suffolk, which she saw gave equal surprize and chagrin to Lord Ernolf, upon whose affairs Mrs Delvile herself now desired to speak with her.
At dinner she attended wholly to Lord Ernolf, whose assiduous politeness, profiting by the humour, saved her the painful effort of forcing conversation, or the guilty consciousness of giving way to silence, and enabled her to preserve her general tenor between taciturnity and loquaciousness.
"You may repeat it, Sir, if you please," said Cecilia, piqued that he had not rather thought of himself than of Lord Ernolf, "to the whole Pantheon." "And if I should, "cried he, "half of it, at least, would thank me; and to obtain the applause of so noble an assembly, what would it signify that Sir Robert should cut my throat?"
"That is so exactly the case with myself also," cried Mrs Delvile, "that to plead for him, I find utterly impossible, though my Lord Ernolf has strongly requested me: but to press such an alliance, I should think an indignity to your understanding."
"Here seems some matter of much intricacy," cried Lord Ernolf, "but, to me, wholly unintelligible." "And to me also," cried Mrs Delvile, "but I am content to let it remain so; for the mysteries of Lady Honoria are so frequent, that they deaden curiosity." "Dear madam, that is very unnatural," cried Lady Honoria, "for I am sure you must long to know who I mean." "I do, at least," said Lord Ernolf.
"Lord Ernolf," said Cecilia, "can never suppose his visit will make any change in me; I have been very explicit with him, and he seemed equally rational and well bred in forbearing any importunity upon the subject."
One day was sufficient for all the preparations she required, and, as she meant to set out very early the next morning, she took leave of Lady Honoria, and the Lords Ernolf and Derford, when they separated for the night; but Mrs Delvile followed her to her room.
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