upon, if she trusted herself to relate the decision which had been
made, she besought her for the present to dispense with the account,
and then forced herself into conversation upon less interesting
subjects.

This prudence had its proper effect, and with tolerable tranquility she
heard Mrs Delvile again announced, and waited upon her in the parlour
with an air of composure.

Not so did Mrs Delvile receive her; she was all eagerness and emotion;
she flew to her the moment she appeared, and throwing her arms around
her, warmly exclaimed "Oh charming girl! Saver of our family! preserver
of our honour! How poor are words to express my admiration! how
inadequate are thanks in return for such obligations as I owe you!"
"You owe me none, madam," said Cecilia, suppressing a sigh; on my side
will be all the obligation, if you can pardon the petulance of my
behaviour this morning."

"Call not by so harsh a name," answered Mrs Delvile, "the keenness of a
sensibility by which you have yourself alone been the sufferer. You
have had a trial the most severe, and however able to sustain, it was
impossible you should not feel it. That you should give up any man
whose friends solicit not your alliance, your mind is too delicate to
make wonderful; but your generosity in submitting, unasked, the
arrangement of that resignation to those for whose interest it is made,
and your high sense of honour in holding yourself accountable to me,
though under no tie, and bound by no promise, mark a greatness of mind
which calls for reverence rather than thanks, and which I never can
praise half so much as I admire."