CHAPTER i
A DISCOVERY.
Cecilia's journey back to the country was as safe and free frominterruption as her journey had been to town, and all that distinguishedthem was what passed in her own mind: the doubts, apprehensions, anddesponding suspense which had accompanied her setting out, were nowall removed, and certainty, ease, the expectation of happiness, and thecessation of all perplexity, had taken their place. She had nothing leftto dread but the inflexibility of Mr Delvile, and hardly any thing evento hope but the recovery of his lady.
Her friends at her return expressed their wonder at her expedition,but their wonder at what occasioned it, though still greater, met nosatisfaction. Henrietta rejoiced in her sight, though her absence hadbeen so short; and Cecilia, whose affection with her pity increased,intimated to her the event for which she wished her to prepare herself,and frankly acknowledged she had reason to expect it would soon takeplace.
Henrietta endeavoured with composure to receive this intelligence, andto return such a mark of confidence with chearful congratulations: buther fortitude was unequal to an effort so heroic, and her character wastoo simple to assume a greatness she felt not: she sighed and changedcolour; and hastily quitted the room that she might sob aloud inanother.
Warm-hearted, tender, and susceptible, her affections were allundisguised: struck with the elegance of Delvile, and enchanted by hisservices to her brother, she had lost to him her heart at first withoutmissing it, and, when missed, without seeking to reclaim it. Thehopelessness of such a passion she never considered, nor asked herselfits end, or scarce suspected its aim; it was pleasant to her at thetime, and she looked not to the future, but fed it with visionaryschemes, and soothed it with voluntary fancies. Now she knew all wasover, she felt the folly she had committed, but though sensibly andcandidly angry at her own error, its conviction offered nothing butsorrow to succeed it.
The felicity of Cecilia, whom she loved, admired and revered, she wishedwith the genuine ardour of zealous sincerity; but that Delvile, the verycause and sole subject of her own personal unhappiness, should himselfconstitute that felicity, was too much for her spirits, and seemed toher mortified mind too cruel in her destiny.
Cecilia, who in the very vehemence of her sorrow saw its innocence,was too just and too noble to be offended by it, or impute to the badpassions of envy or jealousy, the artless regret of an untutored mind.To be penetrated too deeply with the merit of Delvile, with her wantedno excuse, and she grieved for her situation with but little mixtureof blame, and none of surprise. She redoubled her kindness and caresseswith the hope of consoling her, but ventured to trust her no further,till reflection, and her natural good sense, should better enable her tobear an explanation.
Nor was this friendly exertion any longer a hardship to her; the suddenremoval, in her own feelings and affairs, of distress and expectation,had now so much lightened her heart, that she could spare withoutrepining, some portion of its spirit to her dejected young friend.
But an incident happened two mornings after which called back, and mostunpleasantly, her attention to herself. She was told that Mrs Matt, thepoor woman she had settled in Bury, begged an audience, and upon sendingfor her up stairs, and desiring to know what she could do for her,"Nothing, madam, just now," she answered, "for I don't come upon my ownbusiness, but to tell some news to you, madam. You bid me never takenotice of the wedding, that was to be, and I'm sure I never opened mymouth about it from that time to this; but I have found out who it wasput a stop to it, and so I come to tell you."
Cecilia, extremely amazed, eagerly desired her to go on.
"Why, madam, I don't know the gentlewoman's name quite right yet, butI can tell you where she lives, for I knew her as soon as I set eyes onher, when I see her at church last Sunday, and I would have followed herhome, but she went into a coach, and I could not walk fast enough; but Iasked one of the footmen where she lived, and he said at the great houseat the Grove: and perhaps, madam, you may know where that is: and thenhe told me her name, but that I can't just now think of."
"Good heaven!" cried Cecilia,--"it could not be Bennet?"
"Yes, ma'am, that's the very name; I know it again now I hear it."
Cecilia then hastily dismissed her, first desiring her not to mentionthe circumstance to any body.
Shocked and dismayed, she now saw, but saw with horror, the removal ofall her doubts, and the explanation of all her difficulties, in thefull and irrefragable discovery of the perfidy of her oldest friend andconfident.
Miss Bennet herself she regarded in the affair as a mere tool, which,though in effect it did the work, was innocent of its mischief, becausepowerless but in the hand of its employer.
"That employer," cried she, "must be Mr Monckton! Mr Monckton whom solong I have known, who so willingly has been my counsellor, so ably myinstructor! in whose integrity I have confided, upon whose friendshipI have relied! my succour in all emergencies, my guide in allperplexities!--Mr _Monckton_ thus dishonourably, thus barbarously tobetray me! to turn against me the very confidence I had reposed in hisregard for me! and make use of my own trust to furnish the means toinjure me!"--
She was now wholly confirmed that he had wronged her with Mr Delvile;she could not have two enemies so malignant without provocation, and hewho so unfeelingly could dissolve a union at the very altar, could alonehave the baseness to calumniate her so cruelly.
Evil thoughts thus awakened, stopt not merely upon facts; conjecturecarried her further, and conjecture built upon probability. Theofficiousness of Morrice in pursuing her to London, his visiting herwhen there, and his following and watching Delvile, she now reasonablyconcluded were actions directed by Mr Monckton, whose house he had butjust left, and whose orders, whatever they might be, she was almostcertain he would obey. Availing himself, therefore, of the forwardnessand suppleness which met in this young man, she doubted not but hisintelligence had contributed to acquaint him with her proceedings.
The motive of such deep concerted and accumulated treachery was next tobe sought: nor was the search long; one only could have tempted him toschemes so hazardous and costly; and, unsuspicious as she was, she nowsaw into his whole design.
Long accustomed to regard him as a safe and disinterested old friend,the respect with which, as a child, she had looked up to him, shehad insensibly preserved when a woman. That respect had taught her toconsider his notice as a favour, and far from suspiciously shunning, shehad innocently courted it: and his readiness in advising and tutoringher, his frank and easy friendliness of behaviour, had kept hisinfluence unimpaired, by preventing its secret purpose from beingdetected.
But now the whole mystery was revealed; his aversion to the Delviles, towhich hitherto she had attributed all she disapproved in his behaviour,she was convinced must be inadequate to stimulate him to such lengths.That aversion itself was by this late surmise accounted for, and nosooner did it occur to her, than a thousand circumstances confirmed it.
The first among these was the evident ill will of Lady Margaret, whichthough she had constantly imputed to the general irascibility for whichher character was notorious, she had often wondered to find impenetrableto all endeavours to please or soften her. His care of her fortune, hisexhortations against her expences, his wish to make her live with MrBriggs, all contributed to point out the selfishness of his attentions,which in one instance rendered visible, became obvious in every other.
Yet various as were the incidents that now poured upon her memory tohis disgrace, not one among them took its rise from his behaviour toherself, which always had been scrupulously circumspect, or if for amoment unguarded, only at a season when her own distress or confusionhad prevented her from perceiving it. This recollection almost staggeredher suspicions; yet so absolute seemed the confirmation they receivedfrom every other, that her doubt was overpowered, and soon whollyextinguished.
She was yet ruminating on this subject, when, word was brought her thatMr Monckton was in the parlour.
Mingled d
isgust and indignation made her shudder at his name, andwithout pausing a moment, she sent him word she was engaged, and couldnot possibly leave her room.
Astonished by such a dismission, he left the house in the utmostconfusion. But Cecilia could not endure to see him, after a discovery ofsuch hypocrisy and villainy.
She considered, however, that the matter could not rest here: he woulddemand an explanation, and perhaps, by his unparalleled address, againcontrive to seem innocent, notwithstanding appearances were at presentso much against him. Expecting, therefore, some artifice, and determinednot to be duped by it, she sent again for the Pew-opener, to examine hermore strictly.
The woman was out at work in a private family, and could not come tillthe evening: but, when further questioned, the description she gave ofMiss Bennet was too exact to be disputed.
She then desired her to call again the next morning and sent a servantto the Grove, with her compliments to Miss Bennet, and a request thatshe might send her carriage for her the next day, at any time shepleased, as she wished much to speak with her.
This message, she was aware, might create some suspicion, and put herupon her guard; but she thought, nevertheless, a sudden meeting with thePew-opener, whom she meant abruptly to confront with her, would bafflethe security of any previously settled scheme.
To a conviction such as this even Mr Monckton must submit, and since hewas lost to her as a friend, she might at least save herself the pain ofkeeping up his acquaintance.