Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 1Burney, Fanny
General
Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 1
Burney, Fanny
England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
In his choice of the other two trustees he had been more prudent; the
first of these, the honourable Mr Delvile, was a man of high birth and
character; the second, Mr Briggs, had spent his whole life in business,
in which he had already amassed an immense fortune, and had still no
greater pleasure than that of encreasing it. From the high honour,
therefore, of Mr Delvile, he expected the most scrupulous watchfulness
that his niece should in nothing be injured, and from the experience of
Mr Briggs in money matters, and his diligence in transacting business,
he hoped for the most vigilant observance that her fortune, while under
his care, should be turned to the best account. And thus, as far as he
was able, he had equally consulted her pleasure, her security, and her
pecuniary advantage.
Mrs Harrel returned home only in time to dress for the rest of the day.
When Cecilia was summoned to dinner, she found, besides her host and
hostess and Mr Arnott, a gentleman she had not before seen, but who as
soon as she entered the parlour, Mr Harrel presented to her, saying at
the same time he was one of the most intimate of his friends.
This gentleman, Sir Robert Floyer, was about thirty years of age;
his face was neither remarkable for its beauty nor its ugliness, but
sufficiently distinguished by its expression of invincible assurance;
his person, too, though neither striking for its grace nor its
deformity, attracted notice from the insolence of his deportment. His
manners, haughty and supercilious, marked the high opinion he cherished
of his own importance; and his air and address, at once bold and
negligent, announced his happy perfection in the character at which he
aimed, that of an accomplished man of the town.
The moment Cecilia appeared, she became the object of his attention,
though neither with the look of admiration due to her beauty, nor yet
with that of curiosity excited by her novelty, but with the scrutinizing
observation of a man on the point of making a bargain, who views with
fault-seeking eyes the property he means to cheapen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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