my avocations are too many to suffer my infringing that time. You say
you have a son; I have heard of him, also, somewhere before; pray will
you give me leave to enquire--I don't mean to go deep into the matter,
--but particular family occurrences make it essential for me to know,--
whether there is not a young person of rather a capital fortune, to
whom he is supposed to make proposals?"

"Lack-a-day, no, Sir!" answered Mrs Belfield, to the infinite relief of
Cecilia, who instantly concluded this question referred to herself.

"I beg your pardon, then; good morning to you, ma'am," said Mr Delvile,
in a tone that spoke his disappointment; but added "And there is no
such young person, you say, who favours his pretensions?"

"Dear Sir," cried she, "why there's nobody he'll so much as put the
question to! there's a young lady at this very time, a great fortune,
that has as much a mind to him, I tell him, as any man need desire to
see; but there's no making him think it! though he has been brought up
at the university, and knows more about all the things, or as much, as
any body in the king's dominions."

"O, then," cried Mr Delvile, in a voice of far more complacency, "it is
not on the side of the young woman that the difficulty seems to rest?"

"Lord, no, Sir! he might have had her again and again only for asking!
She came after him ever so often; but being brought up, as I said, at
the university, he thought he knew better than me, and so my preaching
was all as good as lost upon him."

The consternation of Cecilia at these speeches could by nothing be