CHAPTER iii.
A SUMMONS.
Cecilia's earliest care, almost at break of day, was to send to theGrove; from thence she heard nothing but evil; Mr Monckton was stillalive, but with little or no hope of recovery, constantly delirious, andtalking of Miss Beverley, and of her being married to young Delvile.
Cecilia, who knew well this, at least, was no delirium, though shockedthat he talked of it, hoped his danger less than was apprehended.
The next day, however, more fatal news was brought her, though not fromthe quarter she expected it: Mr Monckton, in one of his raving fits, hadsent for Lady Margaret to his bed side, and used her almost inhumanly:he had railed at her age and her infirmities with incredible fury,called her the cause of all his sufferings, and accused her as theimmediate agent of Lucifer in his present wound and danger. LadyMargaret, whom neither jealousy nor malignity had cured of loving him,was dismayed and affrighted; and in hurrying out of the room upon hisattempting, in his frenzy, to strike her, she dropt down dead in anapoplectic fit.
"Good Heaven!" thought Cecilia, "what an exemplary punishment has thisman! he loses his hated wife at the very moment when her death couldno longer answer his purposes! Poor Lady Margaret! her life has been asbitter as her temper! married from a view of interest, ill used as a barto happiness, and destroyed from the fruitless ravings of despair!"
She wrote all this intelligence to Ostend, whence she received a letterfrom Delvile, acquainting her he was detained from proceeding furtherby the weakness and illness of his mother, whose sufferings fromseasickness had almost put an end to her existence.
Thus passed a miserable week; Monckton still merely alive, Delviledetained at Ostend, and Cecilia tortured alike by what was recentlypassed, actually present, and fearfully expected; when one morning shewas told a gentleman upon business desired immediately to speak withher.
She hastily obeyed the summons; the constant image of her own mind,Delvile, being already present to her, and a thousand wild conjecturesupon what had brought him back, rapidly occurring to her.
Her expectations, however, were ill answered, for she found an entirestranger; an elderly man, of no pleasant aspect or manners.
She desired to know his business.
"I presume, madam, you are the lady of this house?"
She bowed an assent.
"May I take the liberty, madam, to ask your name?'
"My name, sir?"
"You will do me a favour, madam, by telling it me."
"Is it possible you are come hither without already knowing it?"
"I know it only by common report, madam."
"Common report, sir, I believe is seldom wrong in a matter where to beright is so easy."
"Have you any objection, madam, to telling me your name?"
"No, sir; but your business can hardly be very important, if you are yetto learn whom you are to address. It will be time enough, therefore, forus to meet when you are elsewhere satisfied in this point."
She would then have left the room.
"I beg, madam," cried the stranger, "you will have patience; it isnecessary, before I can open my business, that I should hear your namefrom yourself."
"Well, sir," cried she with some hesitation, "you can scarce have cometo this house, without knowing that its owner is Cecilia Beverley."
"That, madam, is your maiden name."
"My maiden name?" cried she, starting.
"Are you not married, madam?"
"Married, sir?" she repeated, while her cheeks were the colour ofscarlet.
"It is, properly, therefore, madam, the name of your husband that I meanto ask."
"And by what authority, sir," cried she, equally astonished andoffended, "do you make these extraordinary enquiries?"
"I am deputed, madam, to wait upon you by Mr Eggleston, the next heirto this estate, by your uncle's will, if you die without children, orchange your name when you marry. His authority of enquiry, madam,I presume you will allow, and he has vested it in me by a letter ofattorney."
Cecilia's distress and confusion were now unspeakable; she knew not whatto own or deny, she could not conjecture how she had been betrayed, andshe had never made the smallest preparation against such an attack.
"Mr Eggleston, madam," he continued, "has been pretty credibly informedthat you are actually married: he is very desirous, therefore, toknow what are your intentions, for your continuing to be called _Miss_Beverley, as if still single, leaves him quite in the dark: but, as heis so deeply concerned in the affair, he expects, as a lady of honour,you will deal with him without prevarication."
"This demand, sir," said Cecilia, stammering, "is so extremely--so--solittle expected--"
"The way, madam, in these cases, is to keep pretty closely to the point;are you married or are you not?"
Cecilia, quite confounded, made no answer: to disavow her marriage, whenthus formally called upon, was every way unjustifiable; to acknowledgeit in her present situation, would involve her in difficultiesinnumerable.
"This is not, madam, a slight thing; Mr Eggleston has a large family anda small fortune, and that, into the bargain, very much encumbered;it cannot, therefore, be expected that he will knowingly connive atcheating himself, by submitting to your being actually married, andstill enjoying your estate though your husband does not take your name."
Cecilia, now, summoning more presence of mind, answered, "Mr Eggleston,sir, has, at least, nothing to fear from imposition: those with whom hehas, or may have any transactions in this affair, are not accustomed topractice it."
"I am far from meaning any offence, madam; my commission from MrEggleston is simply this, to beg you will satisfy him upon what groundsyou now evade the will of your late uncle, which, till cleared up,appears a point manifestly to his prejudice."
"Tell him, then, sir, that whatever he wishes to know shall be explainedto him in about a week. At present I can give no other answer."
"Very well, madam; he will wait that time, I am sure, for he does notwish to put you to any inconvenience. But when he heard the gentlemanwas gone abroad without owning his marriage, he thought it high time totake some notice of the matter."
Cecilia, who by this speech found she was every way discovered, wasagain in the utmost confusion, and with much trepidation, said, "sinceyou seem so well, sir, acquainted with this affair, I should be glad youwould inform me by what means you came to the knowledge of it?"
"I heard it, madam, from Mr Eggleston himself, who has long known it."
"Long, sir?--impossible! when it is not yet a fortnight--not ten days,or no more, that---"
She stopt, recollecting she was making a confession better deferred.
"That, madam," he answered, "may perhaps bear a little contention: forwhen this business comes to be settled, it will be very essential tobe exact as to the time, even to the very hour; for a large income perannum, divides into a small one per diem: and if your husband keeps hisown name, you must not only give up your uncle's inheritance fromthe time of relinquishing yours, but refund from the very day of yourmarriage."
"There is not the least doubt of it," answered she; "nor will thesmallest difficulty be made."
"You will please, then, to recollect, madam, that this sum is every hourencreasing; and has been since last September, which made half a yearaccountable for last March. Since then there is now added---"
"Good Heaven, Sir," cried Cecilia, "what calculation are you making out?do you call last week last September?"
"No, madam; but I call last September the month in which you weremarried."
"You will find yourself, then, sir, extremely mistaken; and Mr Egglestonis preparing himself for much disappointment, if he supposes me so longin arrears with him."
"Mr Eggleston, madam, happens to be well informed of this transaction,as, if there is any dispute in it, you will find. He was your immediatesuccessor in the house to which you went last September in Pall-Mall;the woman who kept it acquainted his servants that the last lady whohire
d it stayed with her but a day, and only came to town, she found, tobe married: and hearing, upon enquiry, this lady was Miss Beverley, theservants, well knowing that their master was her conditional heir, toldhim the circumstance."
"You will find all this, sir, end in nothing."
"That, madam, as I said before, remains to be proved. If a young lady ateight o'clock in the morning, is seen,--and she was seen, going into achurch with a young gentleman, and one female friend; and is afterwardsobserved to come out of it, followed by a clergyman and another person,supposed to have officiated as father, and is seen get into a coach withsame young gentleman, and same female friend, why the circumstances arepretty strong!--"
"They may seem so, Sir; but all conclusions drawn from them will beerroneous. I was not married then, upon my honour!"
"We have little, madam, to do with professions; the circumstances arestrong enough to bear a trial, and--"
"A trial!--"
"We have traced, madam, many witnesses able to stand to diversparticulars; and eight months share of such an estate as this, is wellworth a little trouble."
"I am amazed, sir! surely Mr Eggleston never desired you to make use ofthis language to me?"
"Mr Eggleston, madam, has behaved very honourably; though he knewthe whole affair so long ago, he was persuaded Mr Delvile had privatereasons for a short concealment; and expecting every day when they wouldbe cleared up by his taking your name, he never interfered: but beingnow informed he set out last week for the continent, he has been advisedby his friends to claim his rights."
"That claim, sir, he need not fear will be satisfied; and without anyoccasion for threats of enquiries or law suits."
"The truth, madam, is this; Mr Eggleston is at present in a littledifficulty about some money matters, which makes it a point with him ofsome consequence to have the affair settled speedily: unless you couldconveniently compromise the matter, by advancing a particular sum,till it suits you to refund the whole that is due to him, and quit thepremises."
"Nothing, sir, is due to him! at least, nothing worth mentioning. Ishall enter into no terms, for I have no compromise to make. As to thepremises, I will quit them with all the expedition in my power."
"You will do well, madam; for the truth is, it will not be convenient tohim to wait much longer."
He then went away.
"When, next," cried Cecilia, "shall I again be weak, vain, blind enoughto form any plan with a hope of secresy? or enter, with _any_ hope, intoa clandestine scheme! betrayed by those I have trusted, discoveredby those I have not thought of, exposed to the cruellest alarms, anddefenceless from the most shocking attacks!--Such has been the life Ihave led since the moment I first consented to a private engagement!--AhDelvile! your mother, in her tenderness, forgot her dignity, or shewould not have concurred in an action which to such disgrace made meliable!"