Cecilia, though unusually anxious about her own affairs, was not so
engrossed by them as to behold with indifference a scene of such
unjustifiable extravagance; it contributed to render her thoughtful
and uneasy, and to deprive her of all mental power of participating in
the gaiety of the assembly. Mr Arnott was yet more deeply affected by
the mad folly of the scheme, and received from the whole evening no
other satisfaction than that which a look of sympathetic concern from
Cecilia occasionally afforded him.

Till nine o'clock no company appeared, except Sir Robert Floyer, who
stayed from dinner time, and Mr Morrice, who having received an
invitation for the evening, was so much delighted with the permission
to again enter the house, that he made use of it between six and
seven o'clock, and before the family had left the dining parlour. He
apologized with the utmost humility to Cecilia for the unfortunate
accident at the Pantheon; but as to her it had been productive of
nothing but pleasure, by exciting in young Delvile the most flattering
alarm for her safety, she found no great difficulty in according him
her pardon.

Among those who came in the first crowd was Mr Monckton, who, had he
been equally unconscious of sinister views, would in following his own
inclination, have been as early in his attendance as Mr Morrice; but
who, to obviate all suspicious remarks, conformed to the fashionable
tardiness of the times.

Cecilia's chief apprehension for the evening was that Sir Robert
Floyer would ask her to dance with him, which she could not refuse
without sitting still during the ball, nor accept, after the reports
she knew to be spread, without seeming to give a public sanction to