"You are not alone," answered she; "but if I go, how am I to return?"
"She shall return with you," cried Mr Harrel, "if you desire it; you shall return together."
Mrs Harrel, starting up in rapture, called out "Oh Mr Harrel, will you indeed leave me in England?"
"Yes," answered he reproachfully, "if you will make a better friend than you have made a wife, and if Miss Beverley is content to take charge of you."
"What can all this mean?" exclaimed Cecilia, "is it possible you can be serious? Are you really going yourself, and will you suffer Mrs Harrel to remain?"
"I am," he answered, "and I will."
Then ringing the bell, he ordered a hackney coach.
Mrs Harrel was scarce able to breathe for extacy, nor Cecilia for amazement: while Mr Harrel, attending to neither of them, walked for some time silently about the room.
"But how," cried Cecilia at last, "can I possibly go? Mrs Delvile must already be astonished at my delay, and if I disappoint her again she will hardly receive me."
"O make not any difficulties," cried Mrs Harrel in an agony; "if Mr Harrel will let me stay, sure you will not be so cruel as to oppose him?"
"But why," said Cecilia, "should either of us go to Vauxhall? surely that is no place for a parting so melancholy."
A servant then came in, and said the hackney coach was at the door.
Mr Harrel, starting at the sound, called out, "come, what do we wait for? if we go not immediately, we may be prevented."
Cecilia then again wished them good night, protesting she could fail Mrs Delvile no longer.
Mrs Harrel, half wild at this refusal, conjured her in the most frantic manner, to give way, exclaiming, "Oh cruel! cruel! to deny me this last request! I will kneel to you day and night," sinking upon the ground before her, "and I will serve you as the humblest of your slaves, if you will but be kind in this last instance, and save me from banishment and misery!"
"Oh rise, Mrs Harrel," cried Cecilia, ashamed of her prostration, and shocked by her vehemence, "rise and let me rest!--it is painful to me to refuse, but to comply for ever in defiance of my judgment--Oh Mrs Harrel, I know no longer what is kind or what is cruel, nor have I known for some time past right from wrong, nor good from evil!"
"Come," cried Mr Harrel impetuously, "I wait not another minute!"
"Leave her then with me!" said Cecilia, "I will perform my promise, Mr Arnott will I am sure hold his to be sacred, she shall now go with him, she shall hereafter come to me,--leave her but behind, and depend upon our care."