him, therefore, to the castle, but without any message; Mrs Delvile,
she was sure, would require none to make her rejoice in his
restoration.

Her next step was writing to Albany, who had given her his direction,
to acquaint him she was now ready to put in practice their long
concerted scheme. Albany instantly hastened to her, and joyfully
accepted the office of becoming at once her Almoner and her Monitor. He
made it his business to seek objects of distress, and always but too
certain to find them, of conducting her himself to their habitations,
and then leaving to her own liberality the assistance their several
cases demanded: and, in the overflowing of his zeal upon these
occasions, and the rapture of his heart in thus disposing, almost at
his pleasure, of her noble fortune, he seemed, at times, to feel an
extasy that, from its novelty and its excess, was almost too exquisite
to be borne. He joined with the beggars in pouring blessings upon her
head, he prayed for her with the poor, and he thanked her with the
succoured.

The pew-opener and her children failed not to keep their appointment,
and Cecilia presently contrived to settle them in her neighbourhood:
where the poor woman, as she recovered her strength, soon got a little
work, and all deficiencies in her power of maintaining herself were
supplied by her generous patroness. The children, however, she ordered
to be coarsely brought up, having no intention to provide for them but
by helping them to common employments.

The promise, also, so long made to Mrs Harrel of an apartment in her
house, was now performed. That lady accepted it with the utmost
alacrity, glad to make any change in her situation, which constant