This incident by no means rendered the journey pleasant,
or Mr Delvile gracious: his own dignity, that
constant object of his thoughts and his cares, had
received a wound from this attack which he had not
the sense to despise; and the vulgarity and impudence
of Mr Briggs, which ought to have made his familiarity
and boldness equally contemptible and ridiculous,
served only with a man whose pride out-ran his understanding,
to render them doubly mortifying and stinging.
He could talk, therefore, of nothing the whole way
that they went, but the extreme impropriety of which
the Dean of had been guilty, in exposing him to scenes
and situations so much beneath his rank, by leaguing
him with a person so coarse and disgraceful.
They slept one night upon the road, and arrived the
next day at Delvile Castle.
AN ANTIQUE MANSION.
Delvile Castle was situated in a large and woody park,
and surrounded by a moat. A drawbridge which
fronted the entrance was every night, by order of
Mr Delvile, with the same care as if still necessary
for the preservation of the family, regularly drawn
up. Some fortifications still remained entire,
and vestiges were every where to be traced of more;
no taste was shown in the disposition of the grounds,
no openings were contrived through the wood for distant
views or beautiful objects: the mansion-house
was ancient, large and magnificent, but constructed
with as little attention to convenience and comfort,
as to airiness and elegance; it was dark, heavy and
monastic, equally in want of repair and of improvement.
The grandeur of its former inhabitants was every where
visible, but the decay into which it was falling rendered
such remains mere objects for meditation and melancholy;
while the evident struggle to support some appearance
of its ancient dignity, made the dwelling and all in
its vicinity wear an aspect of constraint and austerity.
Festivity, joy and pleasure, seemed foreign to the
purposes of its construction; silence, solemnity and
contemplation were adapted to it only.
Mrs Delvile, however, took all possible care to make
the apartments and situation of Cecilia commodious
and pleasant, and to banish by her kindness and animation
the gloom and formality which her mansion inspired.
Nor were her efforts ungratefully received; Cecilia,
charmed by every mark of attention from a woman she
so highly admired, returned her solicitude by encreasing
affection, and repaid all her care by the revival
of her spirits. She was happy, indeed, to have
quitted the disorderly house of Mr Harrel, where terror,
so continually awakened, was only to be lulled by
the grossest imposition; and though her mind, depressed
by what was passed, and in suspence with what was
to come, was by no means in a state for uninterrupted
enjoyment, yet to find herself placed, at last, without
effort or impropriety, in the very mansion she had
so long considered as her road to happiness, rendered
her, notwithstanding her remaining sources of inquietude,
more contented than she had yet felt herself since
her departure from Suffolk.
