Mrs Harrel then flung herself upon a chair in the
bitterest sorrow, declaring she was utterly undone;
that Mr Harrel had declared he could not stay even
an hour in England if she was not in his house; that
he had already had a violent quarrel with Mr Marriot
upon the subject; and that her brother, though she
had sent him the most earnest entreaties, would not
come near her.
Cecilia, tired of vain attempts to offer comfort,
now urged the warmest expostulations against her opposition,
strongly representing the real necessity of her going
abroad, and the unpardonable weakness of wishing to
continue such a life as she now led, adding debt to
debt, and hoarding distress upon distress.
Mrs Harrel then, though rather from compulsion than
conviction, declared she would agree to go, if she
had not a dread of ill usage; but Mr Harrel, she said,
had behaved to her with the utmost brutality, calling
her the cause of his ruin, and threatening that if
she procured not this thousand pound before the ensuing
evening, she should be treated as she deserved for
her extravagance and folly.
“Does he think, then,” said Cecilia with
the utmost indignation, “that I am to be frightened
through your fears into what compliances he pleases?”
“O no,” cried Mrs Harrel, “no; his
expectations are all from my brother. He surely
thought that when I supplicated and pleaded to him,
he would do what I wished, for so he always did formerly,
and so once again I am sure he would do now, could
I but make him come to me, and tell him how I am used,
and tell him that if Mr Harrel takes me abroad in
this humour, I verily think in his rage he will half
murder me.”
Cecilia, who well knew she was herself the real cause
of Mr Arnott’s resistance, now felt her resolution
waver, internally reproaching herself with the sufferings
of his sister; alarmed, however, for her own constancy,
she earnestly besought Mrs Harrel to go and compose
herself for the night, and promised to deliberate what
could be done for her before morning.
Mrs Harrel complied; but scarce was her own rest more
broken than that of Cecilia, who, though extremely
fatigued with a whole night’s watching, was
so perturbed in her mind she could not close her eyes.
Mrs Harrel was her earliest, and had once been her
dearest friend; she had deprived her by her own advice
of her customary refuge in her brother; to refuse,
therefore, assistance to her seemed cruelty, though
to deny it to Mr Harrel was justice: she endeavoured,
therefore, to make a compromise between her judgment
and compassion, by resolving that though she would
grant nothing further to Mr Harrel while he remained
in London, she would contribute from time to time
both to his necessities and comfort, when once he was
established elsewhere upon some plan of prudence and
economy.
A PERSECUTION.
