myself: I presumed not to expect your approbation,--though in missing
it I have for ever lost my own!"

"Has Mortimer, then," cried she with eagerness, "been strictly
honourable? has he neither beguiled nor betrayed you?"

"No, madam," said she, blushing, "I have nothing to reproach him with."

"Then he is indeed my son!" cried Mrs Delvile, with emotion; "had he
been treacherous to you, while disobedient to us, I had indisputably
renounced him."

Cecilia, who now seemed the only culprit, felt herself in a state of
humiliation not to be borne; she collected, therefore, all her courage,
and said, "I have cleared Mr Delvile; permit me, madam, now, to say
something for myself."

"Certainly; you cannot oblige me more than by speaking without
disguise."

"It is not in the hope of regaining your good opinion,--that, I see, is
lost!--but merely--"

"No, not lost," said Mrs Delvile, "but if once it was yet higher, the
fault was my own, in indulging an expectation of perfection to which
human nature is perhaps unequal."

Ah, then, thought Cecilia, all is over! the contempt I so much feared
is incurred, and though it may be softened, it can never be removed!