Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 3Burney, Fanny
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Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 3
Burney, Fanny
England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
“What, then, remained for me? to run over again the same irksome round I
had not patience, and to attempt any thing new I was unqualified: money
I had none; my friends I could bear to burthen no longer; a fortnight I
lingered in wretched irresolution,--a simple accident at the end of it
happily settled me; I was walking, one morning, in Hyde Park, forming a
thousand plans for my future life, but quarrelling with them all; when
a gentleman met me on horseback, from whom, at my Lord Vannelt's, I had
received particular civilities; I looked another way not to be seen
by him, and the change in my dress since I left his Lordship's made me
easily pass unnoticed. He had rode on, however, but a few yards,
before, by some accident or mismanagement, he had a fall from his horse.
Forgetting all my caution, I flew instantly to his assistance; he was
bruised, but not otherwise hurt; I helpt him up, and he leant 'pon my
arm; in my haste of enquiring how he had fared, I called him by his
name. He knew me, but looked surprised at my appearance; he was speaking
to me, however, with kindness, when seeing some gentlemen of his
acquaintance gallopping up to him, he hastily disengaged himself from
me, and instantly beginning to recount to them what had happened, he
sedulously looked another way, and joining his new companions, walked
off without taking further notice of me. For a moment I was almost
tempted to trouble him to come back; but a little recollection told me
how ill he deserved my resentment, and bid me transfer it for the future
from the pitiful individual to the worthless community.
“Here finished my deliberation; the disgust to the world which I had
already conceived, this little incident confirmed; I saw it was only
made for the great and the rich;--poor, therefore, and low, what had
I to do in it? I determined to quit it for ever, and to end every
disappointment, by crushing every hope.
“I wrote to Lord Vannelt to send my trunks to my mother; I wrote to my
mother that I was well, and would soon let her hear more: I then paid
off my lodgings, and 'shaking the dust from my feet,' bid a long adieu
to London; and, committing my route to chance, strole on into the
country, without knowing or caring which way.
“My first thought was simply to seek retirement, and to depend for my
future repose upon nothing but a total seclusion from society: but my
slow method of travelling gave me time for reflection, and reflection
soon showed me the error of this notion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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