“Is it possible you are come hither without already knowing it?” “I know it only by common report, madam.” “Common report, sir, I believe is seldom wrong in a matter where to be right is so easy.” “Have you any objection, madam, to telling me your name?” “No, sir; but your business can hardly be very important, if you are yet to learn whom you are to address. It will be time enough, therefore, for us to meet when you are elsewhere satisfied in this point.” She would then have left the room. “I beg, madam,” cried the stranger, “you will have patience; it is necessary, before I can open my business, that I should hear your name from yourself.” “Well, sir,” cried she with some hesitation, “you can scarce have come to this house, without knowing that its owner is Cecilia Beverley.” “That, madam, is your maiden name.” “My maiden name?” cried she, starting. “Are you not married, madam?” “Married, sir?” she repeated, while her cheeks were the colour of scarlet. “It is, properly, therefore, madam, the name of your husband that I mean to ask.” “And by what authority, sir,” cried she, equally astonished and offended, “do you make these extraordinary enquiries?” “I am deputed, madam, to wait upon you by Mr Eggleston, the next heir to this estate, by your uncle's will, if you die without children, or change your name when you marry. His authority of enquiry, madam, I presume you will allow, and he has vested it in me by a letter of attorney.” Cecilia's distress and confusion were now unspeakable; she knew not what to own or deny, she could not conjecture how she had been betrayed, and she had never made the smallest preparation against such an attack. “Mr Eggleston, madam,” he continued, “has been pretty credibly informed that you are actually married: he is very desirous, therefore, to know what are your intentions, for your continuing to be called _Miss_ Beverley, as if still single, leaves him quite in the dark: but, as he is so deeply concerned in the affair, he expects, as a lady of honour, you will deal with him without prevarication.” “This demand, sir,” said Cecilia, stammering, “is so extremely--so--so little expected--” “The way, madam, in these cases, is to keep pretty closely to the point; are you married or are you not?” Cecilia, quite confounded, made no answer: to disavow her marriage, when thus formally called upon, was every way unjustifiable; to acknowledge it in her present situation, would involve her in difficulties innumerable. “This is not, madam, a slight thing; Mr Eggleston has a large family and a small fortune, and that, into the bargain, very much encumbered; it cannot, therefore, be expected that he will knowingly connive at cheating himself, by submitting to your being actually married, and still enjoying your estate though your husband does not take your name.”