"
A rich bloom mantled on the face of Cecilia, as she replied:
"Nor do I now, Mr. Griffith; but you do well to remind me of my former
weakness, for the recollection of its folly and imprudence only adds to
my present strength."
"Nay," interrupted her eager lover, "if I intended a reproach, or
harbored a boastful thought, spurn me from you forever, as unworthy of
your favor."
"I acquit you of both much easier than I can acquit myself of the charge
of weakness and folly," continued Cecilia; "but there are many things
that have occurred, since we last met, to prevent a repetition of such
inconsiderate rashness on my part. One of them is," she added, smiling
sweetly, "that I have numbered twelve additional months to my age, and a
hundred to my experience. Another, and perhaps a more important one, is,
that my uncle then continued among the friends of his youth, surrounded
by those whose blood mingles with his own; but here he lives a stranger;
and, though he finds some consolation in dwelling in a building where
his ancestors have dwelt before him, yet he walks as an alien through
its gloomy passages, and would find the empty honor but a miserable
compensation for the kindness and affection of one whom he has loved and
cherished from her infancy."
"And yet he is opposed to you in your private wishes, Cecilia, unless my
besotted vanity has led me to believe what it would now be madness to
learn was false; and in your opinions of public things, you are quite as
widely separated.
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