know how Delvile would bear her flight was never a moment from her
thoughts, and to hear whether he would obey or oppose his mother was
her incessant wish. She was fixt, however, to be faithful in refusing
to see him, and at least to suffer nothing new from her own enterprize
or fault.

Early in the morning Mrs Harrel came to see her. She was eager to learn
why, after invitations repeatedly refused, she was thus suddenly
arrived without any; and she was still more eager to talk of herself,
and relate the weary life she led thus shut up in the country, and
confined to the society of her brother.

Cecilia evaded giving any immediate answer to her questions, and Mrs
Harrel, happy in an opportunity to rehearse her own complaints, soon
forgot that she had asked any, and, in a very short time, was
perfectly, though imperceptibly, contented to be herself the only
subject upon which they conversed.

But not such was the selfishness of Mr Arnott; and Cecilia, when she
went down to breakfast, perceived with the utmost concern that he had
passed a night as sleepless as her own. A visit so sudden, so
unexpected, and so unaccountable, from an object that no discouragement
could make him think of with indifference, had been a subject to him of
conjecture and wonder that had revived all the hopes and the fears
which had lately, though still unextinguished, lain dormant. The
enquiries, however, which his sister had given up, he ventured not to
renew, and thought himself but too happy in her presence, whatever
might be the cause of her visit.

He perceived, however, immediately, the sadness that hung upon her