solitude had rendered wholly insupportable. Mr Arnott accompanied her
to the house, and spent one day there; but receiving from Cecilia,
though extremely civil and sweet to him, no hint of any invitation for
repeating his visit, he left it in sadness, and returned to his own in
deep dejection. Cecilia saw with concern how he nourished his hopeless
passion, but knew that to suffer his visits would almost authorise his
feeding it; and while she pitied unaffectedly the unhappiness she
occasioned, she resolved to double her own efforts towards avoiding
similar wretchedness.

This action, however, was a point of honour, not of friendship, the
time being long since past that the society of Mrs Harrel could afford
her any pleasure; but the promises she had so often made to Mr Harrel
in his distresses, though extorted from her merely by the terrors of
the moment, still were promises, and, therefore, she held herself bound
to fulfil them.

Yet far from finding comfort in this addition to her family, Mrs Harrel
proved to her nothing more than a trouble and an incumbrance; with no
inherent resources, she was continually in search of occasional
supplies; she fatigued Cecilia with wonder at the privacy of her life,
and tormented her with proposals of parties and entertainments. She was
eternally in amazement that with powers so large, she had wishes so
confined, and was evidently disappointed that upon coming to so ample
an estate, she lived, with respect to herself and her family, with no
more magnificence or shew than if Heiress to only u500 a year.

But Cecilia was determined to think and to live for herself, without
regard to unmeaning wonder or selfish remonstrances; she had neither
ambition for splendour, nor spirits for dissipation; the recent sorrow