Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress Volume 3 (Paperback)

Excerpt: ... to rest?" "Lord, no, Sir he might have had her again and again only for asking She came after him ever so often; but being brought up, as I said, at the university, he thought he knew better than me, and so my preaching was all as good as lost upon him." The consternation of Cecilia at these speeches could by nothing be equalled but by the shame of Henrietta, who, though she knew not to whom her mother made them, felt all the disgrace and the shock of them herself. "I suppose, Sir," continued Mrs Belfield, "you know my son?" "No, ma'am, my acquaintance is-not very universal." "Then, Sir, you are no judge how well he might make his own terms. And as to this young lady, she found him out, Sir, when not one of his own natural friends could tell where in the world he was gone She was the first, Sir, to come and tell me news of him though I was his own mother Love, Sir, is prodigious for quickness it can see, I sometimes think, through bricks and mortar. Yet all this would not do, he was so obstinate not to take the hint " Cecilia now felt so extremely provoked, she was upon the point of bursting in upon them to make her own vindication; but as her passions, though they tried her reason never conquered it, she restrained herself by considering that to issue forth from a room in that house, would do more towards strengthening what was thus boldly asserted, than all her protestations could have chance to destroy. "And as to young ladies themselves," continued Mrs Belfield, "they know no more how to make their minds known than a baby does: so I suppose he'll shilly shally till somebody else will cry snap, and take her. It is but a little while ago that it was all the report she was to have young Mr Delvile, one of her guardian's sons." "I am sorry report was so impertinent," cried Mr Delvile, with much displeasure; "young Mr Delvile is not to be disposed of with so little ceremony; he knows better what is due to his family." Cecilia here blushed from...