Arblay, Francis (Burney) d' OR MEMOIRS OF AN HEIRESS. BY THE AUTHOR OF EVELINA. THE FOURTH EDITION. IN FIVE VOLUMES. VOL. IV. LONDON: Printed for T. PAYNE and SON at the Mews- MDCCLXXXIV. MUL CECILI A. A S foon as Mrs. Charlton was acquainted with the departure of young Delvile, the returned to Cecilia, impatient to be informed what had paffed. The narration fhe heard both hurt and astonished her; that Cecilia, the heirefs of fuch a fortune, the poffeffor of fo much beauty, defcended of a worthy family, and formed and educated to grace a noble one, fhould be rejected by people to whom her wealth would be most useful, and only in fecret have their alliance proposed to her, the deemed an indignity that called for nothing but refentment, and approved and enforced the refolution of her young friend to refift all folicitations which Mr. and Mrs. Delvile did not fecond themselves. About two hours after Delvile was gone, his letter arrived. Cecilia opened it with trepidation, and read as follows: To MISS BEVERLEY. September 20, 1779. What could be the apprehenfions, the fufpicions of Mifs Beverley when fo earnestly she prohibited my writing? From a temper fo unguarded as mine, could the fear any fubtlety of doctrine? Is my character fo little known. to her, that she can think me capable of craft or duplicity? Had I even the defire, I have neither the addrefs nor the patience to practise them; no, lovelieft Mifs Beverley, though fometimes by vehemence I may incautiously offend, by fophiftry, believe me, I never fhall injure my ambition, as I have told you, is to convince, not beguile, and my arguments fhall be fimple as my profeffions shall be fin cere. Yet how again may I venture to mention a propofal which fo lately almoft before you had heard you rejected? Suffer me, however, to affure you it refulted neither from infenfibility to your delicacy, nor to my own duty; I made it, on the contrary, with that reluctance and timidity which were given me by an ap prehenfion that both feemed to be offended by it:-but alas! already I have faid what with grief I must repeat, I have no refource, no alternative, ternative, between receiving the honour of your hand in fecret or foregoing you for ever. You will wonder, you may well wonder at. fuch a declaration; and again that fevere renunciation with which you wounded me, will tremble on your lips.-Oh, there let it ftop! nor let the air again be agitated with founds. fo difcordant ! In that cruel and heart-breaking moment when I tore myself from you at Delvile-Castle, I confeffed to you the reafon of my flight, and I determined to fee you no more. I named not to you, then, my family, the potency of my own objections against daring to folicit your favour, rendering theirs immaterial: my own are now wholly removed, but theirs remain in full force. My father, defcended of a race which though decaying in wealth, is unfubdued in pride, confiders himself as the guardian of the honour of his house, to which he holds the name of his ancestors infeparably annexed: my mother, born of the fame family, and bred to the fame ideas, has ftrengthened this opinion by giving it the fanction of her own. Such being their fentiments, you will not, madam, be surprised that their only fon, the fole inheritor of their fortune, and fole object of their expectations, fhould early have admitted the fame. Indeed almoft the first leffon I was taught was that of reverencing the family from which I am defcended, and the A 3 name |