CHAPTER iv
A SKETCH OF HIGH LIFE.
Eager to renew a conversation which had afforded her so much pleasure,Cecilia, neither sensible of fatigue from her change of hours nor herjourney, arose with the light, and as soon as she was dressed, hastenedto the breakfast apartment.
She had not, however, been more impatient to enter than she soon becameto quit it; for though not much surprized to find herself there beforeher friend, her ardour for waiting her arrival was somewhat chilled,upon finding the fire but just lighted, the room cold, and the servantsstill employed in putting it in order.
At 10 o'clock she made another attempt: the room was then betterprepared for her reception, but still it was empty. Again she wasretiring, when the appearance of Mr Arnott stopped her.
He expressed his surprize at her early rising, in a manner that markedthe pleasure it gave to him; and then, returning to the conversation ofthe preceding evening, he expatiated with warmth and feeling upon thehappiness of his boyish days, remembered every circumstance belongingto the plays in which they had formerly been companions, and dweltupon every incident with a minuteness of delight that shewed hisunwillingness ever to have done with the subject.
This discourse detained her till they were joined by Mrs Harrel, andthen another, more gay and more general succeeded to it.
During their breakfast, Miss Larolles was announced as a visitor toCecilia, to whom she immediately advanced with the intimacy of an oldacquaintance, taking her hand, and assuring her she could no longerdefer the honour of waiting upon her.
Cecilia, much amazed at this warmth of civility from one to whom shewas almost a stranger, received her compliment rather coldly; but MissLarolles, without consulting her looks, or attending to her manner,proceeded to express the earnest desire she had long had to be known toher; to hope they should meet very often; to declare nothing couldmake her so happy; and to beg leave to recommend to her notice her ownmilliner.
"I assure you," she continued, "she has all Paris in her disposal; thesweetest caps! the most beautiful trimmings! and her ribbons are quitedivine! It is the most dangerous thing you can conceive to go near her;I never trust myself in her room but I am sure to be ruined. If youplease, I'll take you to her this morning."
"If her acquaintance is so ruinous," said Cecilia, "I think I had betteravoid it."
"Oh, impossible! there's no such thing as living without her. To be sureshe's shockingly dear, that I must own; but then who can wonder? Shemakes such sweet things, 'tis impossible to pay her too much for them."
Mrs Harrel now joining in the recommendation, the party was agreed upon,and accompanied by Mr Arnott, the ladies proceeded to the house of themilliner.
Here the raptures of Miss Larolles were again excited: she viewed thefinery displayed with delight inexpressible, enquired who were theintended possessors, heard their names with envy, and sighed with allthe bitterness of mortification that she was unable to order home almosteverything she looked at.
Having finished their business here, they proceeded to various otherdress manufacturers, in whose praises Miss Larolles was almost equallyeloquent, and to appropriate whose goods she was almost equally earnest:and then, after attending this loquacious young lady to her father'shouse, Mrs Harrel and Cecilia returned to their own.
Cecilia rejoiced at the separation, and congratulated herself that therest of the day might be spent alone with her friend.
"Why, no," said Mrs Harrel, "not absolutely alone, for I expect somecompany at night."
"Company again to-night?"
"Nay, don't be frightened, for it will be a very small party; not morethan fifteen or twenty in all."
"Is that so small a party?" said Cecilia, smiling; "and how short a timesince would you, as well as I, have reckoned it a large one!"
"Oh, you mean when I lived in the country," returned Mrs Harrel; "butwhat in the world could I know of parties or company then?"
"Not much, indeed," said Cecilia, "as my present ignorance shews."
They then parted to dress for dinner.
The company of this evening were again all strangers to Cecilia, exceptMiss Leeson, who was seated next to her, and whose frigid looks againcompelled her to observe the same silence she so resolutely practisedherself. Yet not the less was her internal surprise that a lady whoseemed determined neither to give nor receive any entertainment, shouldrepeatedly chuse to show herself in a company with no part of which sheassociated.
Mr Arnott, who contrived to occupy the seat on her other side, sufferednot the silence with which her fair neighbour had infected her to spreadany further: he talked, indeed, upon no new subject; and upon the oldone, of their former sports and amusements, he had already exhaustedall that was worth being mentioned; but not yet had he exhausted thepleasure he received from the theme; it seemed always fresh and alwaysenchanting to him; it employed his thoughts, regaled his imagination,and enlivened his discourse. Cecilia in vain tried to change it foranother; he quitted it only by compulsion, and returned to it withredoubled eagerness.
When the company was retired, and Mr Arnott only remained with theladies, Cecilia, with no little surprise, inquired for Mr Harrel,observing that she had not seen him the whole day.
"O!" cried his lady, "don't think of wondering at that, for it happenscontinually. He dines at home, indeed, in general, but otherwise Ishould see nothing of him at all."
"Indeed? why, how does he fill up his time?"
"That I am sure I cannot tell, for he never consults me about it; but Isuppose much in the same way that other people do."
"Ah, Priscilla!" cried Cecilia, with some earnestness, "how little did Iever expect to see you so much a fine lady!"
"A fine lady?" repeated Mrs Harrel; "why, what is it I do? Don't I liveexactly like every body else that mixes at all with the world?"
"You, Miss Beverley," said Mr Arnott in a low voice, "will I hope giveto the world an example, not take one from it."
Soon after, they separated for the night.
The next morning, Cecilia took care to fill up her time moreadvantageously, than in wandering about the house in search of acompanion she now expected not to find: she got together her books,arranged them to her fancy, and secured to herself for the futureoccupation of her leisure hours, the exhaustless fund of entertainmentwhich reading, that richest, highest, and noblest source of intellectualenjoyment, perpetually affords.
While they were yet at breakfast, they were again visited by MissLarolles. "I am come," cried she, eagerly, "to run away with you both tomy Lord Belgrade's sale. All the world will be there; and we shall go inwith tickets, and you have no notion how it will be crowded."
"What is to be sold there?" said Cecilia.
"Oh, every thing you can conceive; house, stables, china, laces, horses,caps, everything in the world."
"And do you intend to buy any thing?"
"Lord, no; but one likes to see the people's things."
Cecilia then begged they would excuse her attendance.
"O, by no means!" cried Miss Larolles; "you must go, I assure you;there'll be such a monstrous crowd as you never saw in your life. I daresay we shall be half squeezed to death."
"That," said Cecilia, "is an inducement which you must not expect willhave much weight with a poor rustic just out of the country: it mustrequire all the polish of a long residence in the metropolis to make itattractive."
"O but do go, for I assure you it will be the best sale we shall havethis season. I can't imagine, Mrs Harrel, what poor Lady Belgrade willdo with herself; I hear the creditors have seized every thing; I reallybelieve creditors are the cruelest set of people in the world! they havetaken those beautiful buckles out of her shoes! Poor soul! I declare itwill make my heart ache to see them put up. It's quite shocking, uponmy word. I wonder who'll buy them. I assure you they were the prettiestfancied I ever saw. But come, if we don't go directly, there will be nogetting in."
Cecilia again desired to be excused accompanying them, a
dding that shewished to spend the day at home.
"At home, my dear?" cried Mrs Harrel; "why we have been engaged to MrsMears this month, and she begged me to prevail with you to be of theparty. I expect she'll call, or send you a ticket, every moment."
"How unlucky for me," said Cecilia, "that you should happen to have somany engagements just at this time! I hope, at least, there will not beany for to-morrow."
"O yes; to-morrow we go to Mrs Elton's."
"Again to-morrow? and how long is this to last?"
"O, heaven knows; I'll shew you my catalogue."
She then produced a book which contained a list of engagements for morethan three weeks. "And as these," she said, "are struck off, new onesare made; and so it is we go on till after the birth-day."
When this list had been examined and commented upon by Miss Larolles,and viewed and wondered at by Cecilia, it was restored to its place,the two ladies went together to the auction, permitting Cecilia, at herrepeated request, to return to her own apartment.
She returned, however, neither satisfied with the behaviour of herfriend, nor pleased with her own situation: the sobriety of hereducation, as it had early instilled into her mind the pure dictates ofreligion, and strict principles of honour, had also taught her toregard continual dissipation as an introduction to vice, and unboundedextravagance as the harbinger of injustice. Long accustomed to see MrsHarrel in the same retirement in which she had hitherto lived herself,when books were their first amusement, and the society of each otherwas their chief happiness, the change she now perceived in her mind andmanners equally concerned and surprised her. She found her insensibleto friendship, indifferent to her husband, and negligent of all socialfelicity. Dress, company, parties of pleasure, and public places,seemed not merely to occupy all her time; but to gratify all her wishes.Cecilia, in whose heart glowed the warmest affections and most generousvirtue, was cruelly depressed and mortified by this disappointment; yetshe had the good sense to determine against upbraiding her, well awarethat if reproach has any power over indifference, it is only that ofchanging it into aversion.
Mrs Harrel, in truth, was innocent of heart, though dissipated in life;married very young, she had made an immediate transition from living ina private family and a country town, to becoming mistress of one ofthe most elegant houses in Portman-square, at the head of a splendidfortune, and wife to a man whose own pursuits soon showed her thelittle value he himself set upon domestic happiness. Immersed inthe fashionable round of company and diversions, her understanding,naturally weak, was easily dazzled by the brilliancy of her situation;greedily, therefore, sucking in air impregnated with luxury andextravagance, she had soon no pleasure but to vie with some rival inelegance, and no ambition but to exceed some superior in expence.
The Dean of----in naming Mr Harrel for one of the guardians of hisniece, had no other view than that of indulging her wishes by allowingher to reside in the house of her friend: he had little personalknowledge of him, but was satisfied with the nomination, becauseacquainted with his family, fortune, and connections, all whichpersuaded him to believe without further enquiry, that it was morepeculiarly proper for his niece than any other he could make.
In his choice of the other two trustees he had been more prudent; thefirst of these, the honourable Mr Delvile, was a man of high birth andcharacter; the second, Mr Briggs, had spent his whole life in business,in which he had already amassed an immense fortune, and had still nogreater pleasure than that of encreasing it. From the high honour,therefore, of Mr Delvile, he expected the most scrupulous watchfulnessthat his niece should in nothing be injured, and from the experience ofMr Briggs in money matters, and his diligence in transacting business,he hoped for the most vigilant observance that her fortune, while underhis care, should be turned to the best account. And thus, as far as hewas able, he had equally consulted her pleasure, her security, and herpecuniary advantage.
Mrs Harrel returned home only in time to dress for the rest of the day.
When Cecilia was summoned to dinner, she found, besides her host andhostess and Mr Arnott, a gentleman she had not before seen, but who assoon as she entered the parlour, Mr Harrel presented to her, saying atthe same time he was one of the most intimate of his friends.
This gentleman, Sir Robert Floyer, was about thirty years of age;his face was neither remarkable for its beauty nor its ugliness, butsufficiently distinguished by its expression of invincible assurance;his person, too, though neither striking for its grace nor itsdeformity, attracted notice from the insolence of his deportment. Hismanners, haughty and supercilious, marked the high opinion he cherishedof his own importance; and his air and address, at once bold andnegligent, announced his happy perfection in the character at which heaimed, that of an accomplished man of the town.
The moment Cecilia appeared, she became the object of his attention,though neither with the look of admiration due to her beauty, nor yetwith that of curiosity excited by her novelty, but with the scrutinizingobservation of a man on the point of making a bargain, who views withfault-seeking eyes the property he means to cheapen.
Cecilia, wholly unused to an examination so little ceremonious, shrunkabashed from his regards: but his conversation was not less displeasingto her than his looks; his principal subjects, which were horse-racing,losses at play, and disputes at gaming-tables, could afford her butlittle amusement, because she could not understand them; and theepisodes with which they were occasionally interspersed, consistingchiefly of comparative strictures upon celebrated beauties, hints ofimpending bankruptcies, and witticisms upon recent divorces, were yetmore disagreeable to her, because more intelligible. Wearied, therefore,with uninteresting anecdotes, and offended with injudicious subjects ofpleasantry, she waited with impatience for the moment of retiring; butMrs Harrel, less eager, because better entertained, was in no haste toremove, and therefore she was compelled to remain quiet, till they wereboth obliged to arise, in order to fulfil their engagement with MrsMears.
As they went together to the house of that lady, in Mrs Harrel'svis-a-vis, Cecilia, not doubting but their opinions concerning theBaronet would accord, instantly and openly declared her disapprobationof every thing he had uttered; but Mrs Harrel, far from confirmingher expectations, only said, "I am sorry you don't like him, for he isalmost always with us?"
"Do you like him, then, yourself?"
"Extremely; he is very entertaining and clever, and knows the world."
"How judiciously do you praise him!" cried Cecilia; "and how long mightyou deliberate before you could add another word to his panegyric!"
Mrs Harrel, satisfied to commend, without even attempting to vindicatehim, was soon content to change the subject; and Cecilia, though muchconcerned that the husband of her friend had made so disgracefulan election of a favourite, yet hoped that the lenity of Mrs Harrelresulted from her desire to excuse his choice, not from her ownapprobation.