"No, no," interrupted Cecilia, "as her daughter she rejects me!"
"She loves, she adores you!" cried he warmly; and were I not certain she feels your excellencies as they ought to be felt, my veneration for you both should even yet spare you my present supplication. But you would become, I am certain, the first blessing of her life; in you she would behold all the felicity of her son,--his restoration to health, to his country, to his friends!"
"O Sir," cried Cecilia, with emotion, "how deep a trench of real misery do you sink, in order to raise this pile of fancied happiness! But I will not be responsible for your offending such a mother; scarcely can you honour her yourself more than I do; and I here declare most solemnly--"
"O stop!" interrupted Delvile, "and resolve not till you have heard me. Would you, were she no more, were my father also no more, would you yet persist in refusing me?"
"Why should you ask me?" said Cecilia, blushing; "you would then be your own agent, and perhaps--"
She hesitated, and Delvile vehemently exclaimed, "Oh make me not a monster! force me not to desire the death of the very beings by whom I live! weaken not the bonds of affection by which they are endeared to me, and compel me not to wish them no more as the sole barriers to my happiness!"
"Heaven forbid!" cried Cecilia, "could I believe you so impious, I should suffer little indeed in desiring your eternal absence."
"Why then only upon their extinction must I rest my hope of your favour?"
Cecilia, staggered and distressed by this question, could make no answer. Delvile, perceiving her embarrassment, redoubled his urgency; and before she had power to recollect herself, she had almost consented to his plan, when Henrietta Belfield rushing into her memory, she hastily exclaimed, "One doubt there is, which I know not how to mention, but ought to have cleared up;--you are acquainted with--you remember Miss Belfield?"
"Certainly; but what of Miss Belfield that can raise a doubt in the mind of Miss Beverley?"
Cecilia coloured, and was silent.
"Is it possible," continued he, "you could ever for an instant suppose--but I cannot even name a supposition so foreign to all possibility."
"She is surely very amiable?"
"Yes," answered he, "she is innocent, gentle, and engaging; and I heartily wish she were in a better situation."
"Did you ever occasionally, or by any accident, correspond with her?"
"Never in my life."
"And were not your visits to the brother sometimes--"
"Have a care," interrupted he, laughing, "lest I reverse the question, and ask if your visits to the sister were not sometimes for the brother! But what does this mean? Could Miss Beverley imagine that after knowing her, the charms of Miss Belfield could put me in any danger?"