Well, my Cecilia, what say you to this?
Are you not as much surprized as I am?
Mr. Faulkland to emerge at last the favoured
gallant of Mrs. Gerrarde! Prodigious!
I confess, my dear, I am so
selfish as not to participate with lady
V— in her uneasiness on this occasion.
That Mrs. Gerrarde flies from my husband,
I am glad; and that Mr. Faulkland
is the very man she chose to fly with, I
am still gladder: he, of all men living,
I would have wished (though least expected)
to be the person. This explains
every thing that is passed. Surely, as
Lady V—says, this must open Mr. Arnold's
eyes. I can now discover a double
reason for my poor deluded man's having
his imagination poisoned with jealousy.
Mrs. Gerrarde did not aim singly at separating
my husband and me: this, perhaps,
was but a secondary consideration; or
who knows whether it was at all intended?
But she most certainly designed to secure
herself against all suspicions, by making
me the object of them; and effectually to
blind Mr. Arnold, persuaded him, that
Mr. Faulkland's visits, made to her, were
only in the hopes of seeing me.
Let her views have been what they
would, this event was beyond my hopes.
Some glimmerings of comfort begin to
break in upon me. Methinks my heart
feels much lighter than it did. How Sir
George will stare at this account! My mother
will life up her eyes; but she has no
opinion of Mr. Faulkland's morals, and
therefore will be the less surprized. I pity
Miss Burchell: this is an irremediable bar
to her hopes; faint and unsupported as
they were before, they must now intirely
vanish.
