"Speak not to me such words!" cried Cecilia, hastily rising; "your
friends will not listen to them, neither, therefore, must I."

"My friends," cried he with energy, "are henceforth out of the
question: my father's concurrence with a proposal he _knew_ you had not
power to grant, was in fact a mere permission to insult you; for if,
instead of dark charges, he had given any authority for your losses, I
had myself spared you the shock you have so undeservedly received from
hearing it.--But to consent to a plan which _could_ not be accepted!--
to make me a tool to offer indignity to Miss Beverley!--He has released
me from his power by so erroneous an exertion of it, and my own honour
has a claim to which his commands must give place. That honour binds me
to Miss Beverley as forcibly as my admiration, and no voice but her own
shall determine my future destiny."

"That voice, then," said Cecilia, "again refers you to your mother. Mr
Delvile, indeed, has not treated me kindly; and this last mock
concession was unnecessary cruelty; but Mrs Delvile merits my utmost
respect, and I will listen to nothing which has not her previous
sanction."

"But will her sanction be sufficient? and may I hope, in obtaining it,
the security of yours?"

"When I have said I will hear nothing without it, may you not almost
infer--I will refuse nothing with it!"

The acknowledgments he would now have poured forth, Cecilia would not
hear, telling him, with some gaiety, they were yet unauthorized by Mrs