reformation, not a little of a coquette. You will not allow it, you did not
see it, you did not go out with her, and being three or four years younger,
you could not be a very good critic of Cecilia's conduct; and depend upon
it I am right, she was not a little of a coquette. She did not know, and I
am sure I did not know, that she had a heart, till she became acquainted
with General Clarendon.

"The first time we met him,"--observing a quickening of attention in
Helen's eyes, Lady Davenant smiled, and said, "Young ladies always like
to hear of 'the first time we saw him.'--The first time we saw General
Clarendon was--forgive me the day of the month--in the gallery at Florence.
I forget how it happened that he had not been presented to me--to Lord
Davenant he must have been. But so it was and it was new to Cecilia to see
a man of his appearance who had not on his first arrival shown himself
ambitious to be made known to her. He was admiring a beautiful Magdalene,
and he was standing with his back towards us. I recollect that his
appearance when I saw him as a stranger--the time when one can best judge
of appearance--struck me as that of a distinguished person; but little
did I think that there stood Cecilia's husband! so little did my maternal
instinct guide me.

"As we approached, he turned and gave one look at Cecilia; she gave one
look at him. He passed on, she stopped me to examine the picture which he
had been admiring.

"Every English mother at Florence, except myself, had their eyes fixed upon
General Clarendon from the moment of his arrival. But whatever I may have
been, or may have been supposed to be, on the great squares of politics, I
believe I never have been accused or even suspected of being a manoeuvrer
on the small domestic scale.