Cecilia wept over this letter with tenderness, grief and alarm; butdeclared, had it even summoned her to follow her abroad, she could not,after reading it, have hesitated in complying.
"O now, then," cried Delvile, "let our long suspenses end! hear me withthe candour; my mother has already listened to me--be mine, my Cecilia,at once,--and force me not, by eternal scruples, to risk anotherseparation."
"Good heaven, Sir!" cried Cecilia, starting, "in such a state as MrsDelvile thinks herself, would you have her journey delayed?"
"No, not a moment! I would but ensure you mine, and go with her all overthe world!"
"Wild and impossible!--and what is to be done with Mr Delvile?"
"It is on his account wholly I am thus earnestly precipitate. If I donot by an immediate marriage prevent his further interference, all Ihave already suffered may again be repeated, and some fresh contest withmy mother may occasion another relapse."
Cecilia, who now understood him, ardently protested she would not listenfor a moment to any clandestine expedient.
He besought her to be patient; and then anxiously represented toher their peculiar situations. All application to his father he wasperemptorily forbid making, all efforts to remove his prejudices theirimpenetrable mystery prevented; a public marriage, therefore, with suchobstacles, would almost irritate him to phrenzy, by its daring defianceof his prohibition and authority.
"Alas!" exclaimed Cecilia, "we can never do right but in parting!"
"Say it not," cried he, "I conjure you! we shall yet live, I hope, toprove the contrary."
"And can you, then," cried she, reproachfully, "Oh Mr Delvile! can youagain urge me to enter your family in secret?"
"I grieve, indeed," he answered, "that your goodness should so severelybe tried; yet did you not condescend to commit the arbitration to mymother?"
"True; and I thought her approbation would secure my peace of mind; buthow could I have expected Mrs Delvile's consent to such a scheme!"
"She has merely accorded it from a certainty there is no other resource.Believe me, therefore, my whole hope rests upon your present compliance.My father, I am certain, by his letter, will now hear neither petitionnor defence; on the contrary, he will only enrage at the temerity ofoffering to confute him. But when he knows you are his daughter, hishonour will then be concerned in yours, and it will be as much hisdesire to have it cleared, as it is now to have it censured."
"Wait at least your return, and let us try what can be done with him."
"Oh why," cried Delvile, with much earnestness, "must I linger out monthafter month in this wretched uncertainty! If I wait I am undone! myfather, by the orders I must unavoidably leave, will discover thepreparations making without his consent, and he will work upon you in myabsence, and compel you to give me up!"
"Are you sure," said she, half smiling, "he would have so much power?"
"I am but too sure, that the least intimation, in his present irritablestate of mind, reaching him of my intentions, would make him notscruple, in his fury, pronouncing some malediction upon my disobediencethat _neither_ of us, I must own, could tranquilly disregard."
This was an argument that came home to Cecilia, whose deliberation uponit, though silent, was evidently not unfavourable.
He then told her that with respect to settlements, he would instantlyhave a bond drawn up, similar to that prepared for their former intendedunion, which should be properly signed and sealed, and by which he wouldengage himself to make, upon coming to his estate, the same settlementupon her that was made upon his mother.
"And as, instead of keeping up three houses," he continued, "in themanner my father does at present, I mean to put my whole estate _out tonurse_, while we reside for a while abroad, or in the country, I doubtnot but in a very few years we shall be as rich and as easy as we shalldesire."
He told her, also, of his well-founded expectations from the Relationsalready mentioned; which the concurrence of his mother with his marriagewould thence forward secure to him.
He then, with more coherence, stated his plan at large. He purposed,without losing a moment, to return to London; he conjured her, in thename of his mother, to set out herself early the next day, that thefollowing evening might be dedicated wholly to Mrs Delvile: through herintercession he might then hope Cecilia's compliance, and every thing onthe morning after should be prepared for their union. The long-desiredceremony over, he would instantly ride post to his father, and pay him,at least, the respect of being the first to communicate it. He wouldthen attend his mother to the Continent, and leave the arrangementof everything to his return. "Still, therefore, as a single man," hecontinued, "I mean to make the journey, and I shall take care, by thetime I return, to have all things in readiness for claiming my sweetBride. Tell me, then, now, if you can reasonably oppose this plan?"
"Indeed," said Cecilia, after some hesitation, "I cannot see thenecessity of such violent precipitancy."
"Do you not try me too much," cried Delvile, impatiently, "to talk nowof precipitancy! after such painful waiting, such wearisome expectation!I ask you not to involve your own affairs in confusion by accompanyingme abroad; sweet to me as would be such an indulgence, I would not makea run-away of you in the opinion of the world. All I wish is the secretcertainty I cannot be robbed of you, that no cruel machinations mayagain work our separation, that you are mine, unalterably mine, beyondthe power of caprice or ill fortune."
Cecilia made no answer; tortured with irresolution, she knew not uponwhat to determine.
"We might then, according to the favour or displeasure of my father,settle wholly abroad for the present, or occasionally visit him inEngland; my mother would be always and openly our friend--Oh be firm,then, I conjure you, to the promise you have given her, and deign to bemine on the conditions she prescribes. She will be bound to you for everby so generous a concession, and even her health may be restored by thecessation of her anxieties. With such a wife, such a mother, whatwill be wanting for _me_! Could I lament not being richer, I must berapacious indeed!--Speak, then, my Cecilia! relieve me from the agonyof this eternal uncertainty, and tell me your word is invariable as yourhonour, and tell me my mother gives not her sanction in vain!"
Cecilia sighed deeply, but, after some hesitation, said, "I little knewwhat I had promised, nor know I now what to perform!--there must ever, Ifind, be some check to human happiness! yet, since upon these terms, MrsDelvile herself is content to wish me of her family--"
She stopt; but, urged earnestly by Delvile, added "I must not, I think,withdraw the powers with which I entrusted her."
Delvile, grateful and enchanted, now forgot his haste and his business,and lost every wish but to re-animate her spirits: she compelled him,however, to leave her, that his visit might less be wondered at, andsent by him a message to Mrs. Delvile, that, wholly relying upon herwisdom, she implicitly submitted to her decree.