Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress, vol 1 | Page 4

a welcome guest at the
Deanery; his conversation was to Cecilia a never-failing source of
information, as his knowledge of life and manners enabled him to start
those subjects of which she was most ignorant; and her mind, copious
for the admission and intelligent for the arrangement of knowledge,
received all new ideas with avidity.
Pleasure given in society, like money lent in usury, returns with interest
to those who dispense it: and the discourse of Mr Monckton conferred
not a greater favour upon Cecilia than her attention to it repaid. And
thus, the speaker and the hearer being mutually gratified, they had
always met with complacency, and commonly parted with regret.
This reciprocation of pleasure had, however, produced different effects
upon their minds; the ideas of Cecilia were enlarged, while the
reflections of Mr Monckton were embittered. He here saw an object
who to all the advantages of that wealth he had so highly prized, added
youth, beauty, and intelligence; though much her senior, he was by no
means of an age to render his addressing her an impropriety, and the
entertainment she received from his conversation, persuaded him that
her good opinion might with ease be improved into a regard the most
partial. He regretted the venal rapacity with which he had sacrificed
himself to a woman he abhorred, and his wishes for her final decay
became daily more fervent. He knew that the acquaintance of Cecilia
was confined to a circle of which he was himself the principal
ornament, that she had rejected all the proposals of marriage which had
hitherto been made to her, and, as he had sedulously watched her from
her earliest years, he had reason to believe that her heart had escaped
any dangerous impression. This being her situation, he had long looked
upon her as his future property; as such he had indulged his admiration,
and as such he had already appropriated her estate, though he had not
more vigilantly inspected into her sentiments, than he had guarded his
own from a similar scrutiny.
The death of the Dean her uncle had, indeed, much alarmed him; he
grieved at her leaving Suffolk, where he considered himself the first

man, alike in parts and in consequence, and he dreaded her residing in
London, where he foresaw that numerous rivals, equal to himself in
talents and in riches, would speedily surround her; rivals, too, youthful
and sanguine, not shackled by present ties, but at liberty to solicit her
immediate acceptance. Beauty and independence, rarely found together,
would attract a crowd of suitors at once brilliant and assiduous; and the
house of Mr Harrel was eminent for its elegance and gaiety; but yet,
undaunted by danger, and confiding in his own powers, he determined
to pursue the project he had formed, not fearing by address and
perseverance to ensure its success.
CHAPTER ii
AN ARGUMENT.
Mr Monckton had, at this time, a party of company assembled at his
house for the purpose of spending the Christmas holidays. He waited
with anxiety the arrival of Cecilia, and flew to hand her from the chaise
before Mr Harrel could alight. He observed the melancholy of her
countenance, and was much pleased to find that her London journey
had so little power to charm her. He conducted her to the breakfast
parlour, where Lady Margaret and his friends expected her.
Lady Margaret received her with a coldness that bordered upon
incivility; irascible by nature and jealous by situation, the appearance
of beauty alarmed, and of chearfulness disgusted her. She regarded
with watchful suspicion whoever was addressed by her husband, and
having marked his frequent attendance at the Deanery, she had singled
out Cecilia for the object of her peculiar antipathy; while Cecilia,
perceiving her aversion though ignorant of its cause, took care to avoid
all intercourse with her but what ceremony exacted, and pitied in secret
the unfortunate lot of her friend.
The company now present consisted of one lady and several gentlemen.
Miss Bennet, the lady, was in every sense of the phrase, the humble
companion of Lady Margaret; she was low-born, meanly educated, and
narrow-minded; a stranger alike to innate merit or acquired

accomplishments, yet skilful in the art of flattery, and an adept in every
species of low cunning. With no other view in life than the attainment
of affluence without labour, she was not more the slave of the mistress
of the house, than the tool of its master; receiving indignity without
murmur, and submitting to contempt as a thing of course.
Among the gentlemen, the most conspicuous, by means of his dress,
was Mr Aresby, a captain in the militia; a young man who having
frequently heard the words red-coat and gallantry put together,
imagined the conjunction not merely customary, but honourable, and
therefore, without