CHAPTER ii. -- A VISIT.
One week only, however, had yet tried the perseverance of Cecilia, when,while she was working with Mrs Charlton in her dressing-room, her maidhastily entered it, and with a smile that seemed announcing welcomenews, said, "Lord, ma'am, here's Fidel!" and, at the same moment,she was followed by the dog, who jumpt upon Cecilia in a transport ofdelight.
"Good heaven," cried she, all amazement, "who has brought him? whencedoes he come?"
"A country man brought him, ma'am; but he only put him in, and would notstay a minute."
"But whom did he enquire for?--who saw him?--what did he say?"
"He saw Ralph, ma'am."
Ralph, then, was instantly called; and these questions being repeated,he said, "Ma'am, it was a man I never saw before; but he only bid metake care to deliver the dog into your own hands, and said you wouldhave a letter about him soon, and then went away; I wanted him to staytill I came up stairs, but he was off at once."
Cecilia, quite confounded by this account, could make neither commentnor answer; but, as soon as the servants had left the room, Mrs Charltonentreated to know to whom the dog had belonged, convinced by her extremeagitation, that something interesting and uncommon must relate to him.
This was no time for disguise; astonishment and confusion bereft Ceciliaof all power to attempt it; and, after a very few evasions, she brieflycommunicated her situation with respect to Delvile, his leaving her,his motives, and his mother's evident concurrence; for these were all soconnected with her knowledge of Fidel, that she led to them unavoidablyin telling what she knew of him.
Very little penetration was requisite, to gather from her manner allthat was united in her narrative of her own feelings and disappointmentin the course of this affair; and Mrs Charlton, who had hithertobelieved the whole world at her disposal, and that she continued singlefrom no reason but her own difficulty of choice, was utterly amazed tofind that any man existed who could withstand the united allurementsof so much beauty, sweetness, and fortune. She felt herself sometimesinclined to hate, and at other times to pity him; yet concluded that herown extreme coldness was the real cause of his flight, and warmly blameda reserve which had thus ruined her happiness.
Cecilia was in the extremest perplexity and distress to conjecturethe meaning of so unaccountable a present, and so strange a message.Delvile, she knew, had desired the dog might follow him to Bristol; hismother, always pleased to oblige him, would now less than ever neglectany opportunity; she could not, therefore, doubt that she had sent ortaken him thither, and thence, according to all appearances, he mustnow come. But was it likely Delvile would take such a liberty? Was itprobable, when so lately he had almost exhorted her to forget him, hewould even wish to present her with such a remembrance of himself? Andwhat was the letter she was bid to expect? Whence and from what was itto come?
All was inexplicable! the only thing she could surmise, with anysemblance of probability, was that the whole was some frolic of LadyHonoria Pemberton, who had persuaded Delvile to send her the dog, andperhaps assured him she had herself requested to have him.
Provoked by this suggestion, her first thought was instantly having himconveyed to the castle; but uncertain what the whole affair meant, andhoping some explanation in the letter she was promised, she determinedto wait till it came, or at least till she heard from Mrs Delvile,before she took any measures herself in the business. Mutual accountsof their safe arrivals at Bristol and in Suffolk, had already passedbetween them, and she expected very soon to have further intelligence;though she was now, by the whole behaviour of Mrs Delvile, convinced shewished not again to have her an inmate of her house, and that the restof her minority might pass, without opposition; in the house of MrsCharlton.
Day after day, however, passed, and yet she heard nothing more; a week,a fortnight elapsed, and still no letter came. She now concluded thepromise was a deception, and repented that she had waited a momentwith any such expectation. Her peace, during this time, was greatlydisturbed; this present made her fear she was thought meanly of byMr Delvile; the silence of his mother gave her apprehensions for hishealth, and her own irresolution how to act, kept her in perpetualinquietude. She tried in vain to behave as if this incident had nothappened; her mind was uneasy, and the same actions produced not thesame effects; when she now worked or read, the sight of Fidel by herside distracted her attention; when she walked, it was the same, forFidel always followed her; and though, in visiting her old acquaintance,she forbore to let him accompany her, she was secretly planning thewhole time the contents of some letter, which she expected to meet with,on returning to Mrs Charlton's.
Those gentlemen in the country who, during the life-time of the Dean,had paid their addresses to Cecilia, again waited upon her at MrsCharlton's, and renewed their proposals. They had now, however, stillless chance of success, and their dismission was brief and decisive.
Among these came Mr Biddulph; and to him Cecilia was involuntarilymost civil, because she knew him to be the friend of Delvile. Yethis conversation encreased the uneasiness of her suspence; for afterspeaking of the family in general which she had left, he enquired moreparticularly concerning Delvile, and then added, "I am, indeed, greatlygrieved to find, by all the accounts I receive of him, that he is now ina very bad state of health."
This speech gave her fresh subject for apprehension; and in proportionas the silence of Mrs Delvile grew more alarming, her regard for herfavourite Fidel became more partial. The affectionate animal seemed tomourn the loss of his master, and while sometimes she indulged herselfin fancifully telling him her fears, she imagined she read in hiscountenance the faithfullest sympathy.
One week of her minority was now all that remained, and she was soonwholly occupied in preparations for coming of age. She purposed takingpossession of a large house that had belonged to her uncle, which wassituated only three miles from that of Mrs Charlton; and she employedherself in giving orders for fitting it up, and in hearing complaints,and promising indulgencies, to various of her tenants.
At this time, while she was at breakfast one morning, a letter arrivedfrom Mrs Delvile. She apologised for not writing sooner, but added thatvarious family occurrences, which had robbed her of all leisure, mighteasily be imagined, when she acquainted her that Mortimer had determinedupon again going abroad.... They were all, she said, returned to DelvileCastle, but mentioned nothing either of the health of her son, or of herown regret, and filled up the rest of her letter, with general news andexpressions of kindness; though, in a postscript, was inserted, "We havelost our poor Fidel."
Cecilia was still meditating upon this letter, by which her perplexityhow to act was rather encreased than diminished, when, to her greatsurprise, Lady Honoria Pemberton was announced. She hastily begged oneof the Miss Charltons to convey Fidel out of sight, from a dread of herraillery, should she, at last, be unconcerned in the transaction, andthen went to receive her.
Lady Honoria, who was with her governess, gave a brief history of herquitting Delvile Castle, and said she was now going with her father tovisit a noble family in Norfolk; but she had obtained his permissionto leave him at the inn where they had slept, in order to make a shortexcursion to Bury, for the pleasure of seeing Miss Beverley.
"And therefore," she continued, "I can stay but half an hour; so youmust give me some account of yourself as fast as possible."
"What account does your ladyship require?"
"Why, who you live with here, and who are your companions, and what youdo with yourself."
"Why, I live with Mrs Charlton; and for companions, I have at least ascore; here are her two grand-daughters, and Mrs and Miss--."
"Pho, pho," interrupted Lady Honoria, "but I don't mean such hum-drumcompanions as those; you'll tell me next, I suppose, of the parson andhis wife and three daughters, with all their cousins and aunts; Ihate those sort of people. What I desire to hear of is, who are yourparticular favourites; and whether you take long walks here, as youused to do at the Castle,
and who you have to accompany you?" And then,looking at her very archly, she added, "A pretty little dog, now, Ishould think, would be vastly agreeable in such a place as this.--Ah,Miss Beverley! you have not left off that trick of colouring, I see!"
"If I colour now," said Cecilia, fully convinced of the justness of hersuspicions, "I think it must be for your ladyship, not myself; for, ifI am not much mistaken, either in person, or by proxy, a blush from LadyHonoria Pemberton would not, just now, be wholly out of season."
"Lord," cried she, "how like that is to a speech of Mrs Delvile's!She has taught you exactly her manner of talking. But do you know I aminformed you have got Fidel with you here? O fie, Miss Beverley! Whatwill papa and mamma say, when they find you have taken away poor littlemaster's plaything?"
"And O fie, Lady Honoria! what shall I say, when I find you guilty ofthis mischievous frolic! I must beg, however, since you have gone thusfar, that you will proceed a little farther, and send back the dog tothe person from whom you received him."
"No, not I! manage him all your own way; if you chuse to accept dogsfrom gentlemen, you know, it is your affair, and not mine."
"If you really will not return him yourself, you must at least pardon meshould you hear that I do in your ladyship's name."
Lady Honoria for some time only laughed and rallied, without comingto any explanation; but when she had exhausted all the sport she couldmake, she frankly owned that she had herself ordered the dog to beprivately stolen, and then sent a man with him to Mrs Charlton's.
"But you know," she continued, "I really owed you a spite for being soill-natured as to run away after sending me to call Mortimer to comfortand take leave of you."
"Do you dream, Lady Honoria? when did I send you?"
"Why you know you looked as if you wished it, and that was the samething. But really it made me appear excessively silly, when I had forcedhim to come back with me, and told him you were waiting for him,--to seenothing of you at all, and not be able to find or trace you. He took itall for my own invention."
"And was it not your own invention?"
"Why that's nothing to the purpose; I wanted him to believe you sent me,for I knew else he would not come."
"Your ladyship was a great deal too good!"
"Why now suppose I had brought you together, what possible harm couldhave happened from it? It would merely have given each of you somenotion of a fever and ague; for first you would both have been hot, andthen you would both have been cold, and then you would both have turnedred, and then you would both have turned white, and then you would bothhave pretended to simper at the trick; and then there would have been anend of it."
"This is a very easy way of settling it all," cried Cecilia laughing;"however, you must be content to abide by your own theft, for you cannotin conscience expect I should take it upon myself."
"You are terribly ungrateful, I see," said her ladyship, "for all thetrouble and contrivance and expence I have been at merely to oblige you,while the whole time, poor Mortimer, I dare say, has had his sweet Petadvertised in all the newspapers, and cried in every market-town in thekingdom. By the way, if you do send him back, I would advise you tolet your man demand the reward that has been offered for him, which mayserve in part of payment for his travelling expenses."
Cecilia could only shake her head, and recollect Mrs Delvile'sexpression, that her levity was incorrigible.
"O if you had seen," she continued, "how sheepish Mortimer looked whenI told him you were dying to see him before he set off! he colouredso!--just as you do now!--but I think you're vastly alike."
"I fear, then," cried Cecilia, not very angry at this speech, "there isbut little chance your ladyship should like either of us."
"O yes, I do! I like odd people of all things."
"Odd people? and in what are we so very odd?"
"O, in a thousand things. You're so good, you know, and so grave, and sosqueamish."
"Squeamish? how?"
"Why, you know, you never laugh at the old folks, and never fly at yourservants, nor smoke people before their faces, and are so civil to theold fograms, you would make one imagine you liked nobody so well. Bythe way, I could do no good with my little Lord Derford; he pretendedto find out I was only laughing at him, and so he minded nothing I toldhim. I dare say, however, his father made the detection, for I am surehe had not wit enough to discover it himself."
Cecilia then, very seriously began to entreat that she would return thedog herself, and confess her frolic, remonstrating in strong terms uponthe mischievous tendency and consequences of such inconsiderate flights.
"Well," cried she, rising, "this is all vastly true; but I have no timeto hear any more of it just now; besides, it's only forestalling my nextlecture from Mrs Delvile, for you talk so much alike, that it is reallyvery perplexing to me to remember which is which."
She then hurried away, protesting she had already outstayed her father'spatience, and declaring the delay of another minute would occasionhalf a dozen expresses to know whether she was gone towards Scotland orFlanders.
This visit, however, was both pleasant and consolatory to Cecilia; whowas now relieved from her suspence, and revived in her spirits by theintelligence that Delvile had no share in sending her a present, which,from him, would have been humiliating and impertinent. She regretted,indeed, that she had not instantly returned it to the castle, which shewas now convinced was the measure she ought to have pursued; but to makeall possible reparation, she determined that her own servant shouldset out with him the next morning to Bristol, and take a letter toMrs Delvile to explain what had happened, since to conceal it from anydelicacy to Lady Honoria, would be to expose herself to suspicions themost mortifying, for which that gay and careless young lady would neverthank her.
She gave orders, therefore, to her servant to get ready for the journey.
When she communicated these little transactions to Mrs Charlton, thatkind-hearted old lady, who knew her fondness for Fidel, advised her notyet to part with him, but merely to acquaint Mrs Delvile where he was,and what Lady Honoria had done, and, by leaving to herself the careof settling his restoration, to give her, at least, an opportunity ofoffering him to her acceptance.
Cecilia, however, would listen to no such proposal; she saw the firmnessof Delvile in his resolution to avoid her, and knew that policy, as wellas propriety, made it necessary she should part with what she could onlyretain to remind her of one whom she now most wished to forget.