home,--and so I would if it were ten times a worse home than it is!--
just exactly the day before. Because afterwards I shall never like to
look that gentleman in the face,--never, never!--for married ladies I
know are not to be trusted!"

"Be not apprehensive; you have no occasion. Whatever may be my fate, I
will never be so treacherous as to betray my beloved Henrietta to _any_
body."

"May I ask you, madam, one question?"

"Certainly."

"Why did all this never happen before?"

"Indeed," cried Cecilia, much distressed, "I know not that it will
happen now."

"Why what, dear madam, can hinder it?"

"A thousand, thousand things! nothing can be less secure."

"And then I am still as much puzzled as ever. I heard, a good while
ago, and we all heard that it was to be; and I thought that it was no
wonder, I am sure, for I used often to think it was just what was most
likely; but afterwards we heard it was no such thing, and from that
moment I always believed there had been nothing at all in it."

"I must speak to you, I find, with sincerity; my affairs have long been
in strange perplexity: I have not known myself what to expect; one day