"Even in my own mind," said Cecilia, "I can no longer defend him, for he could never have been so eager to promote the interest of Sir Robert, in the present terrible situation of his own affairs, had he not been stimulated by some secret motives. His schemes and his artifices, however, will now be utterly lost upon me, since your warning and advice, aided by my own suffering experience of the inutility of all I can do for him, will effectually guard me from all his future attempts."
"Rest no security upon yourself," said Mr Monckton, "since you have no knowledge of the many tricks and inventions by which you may yet be plundered. Perhaps he may beg permission to reside in your house in Suffolk, or desire an annuity for his wife, or chuse to receive your first rents when you come of age; and whatever he may fix upon, his dagger and his bowl will not fail to procure him. A heart so liberal as yours can only be guarded by flight. You were going, you said, when I came,--and whither?"
"To--to St James's-square," answered she, with a deep blush.
"Indeed!--is young Delvile, then, going abroad?"
"Abroad?--no,--I believe not."
"Nay, I only imagined it from your chusing to reside in his house."
"I do not chuse it," cried Cecilia, with quickness, "but is not any thing preferable to dwelling with Mr Briggs?"
"Certainly," said Mr Monckton coolly, "nor should I have supposed he had any chance with you, had I not hitherto observed that your convenience has always been sacrificed to your sense of propriety."
Cecilia, touched by praise so full of censure, and earnest to vindicate her delicacy, after an internal struggle, which Mr Monckton was too subtle to interrupt, protested she would go instantly to Mr Briggs, and see if it were possible to be settled in his house, before she made any attempt to fix herself elsewhere.
"And when?" said Mr Monckton.
"I don't know," answered she, with some hesitation, "perhaps this afternoon."
"Why not this morning?"
"I can go out no where this morning; I must stay with Mrs Harrel."
"You thought otherwise when I came, you were then content to leave her."
Cecilia's alacrity, however, for changing her abode, was now at an end, and she would fain have been left quietly to re-consider her plans: but Mr Monckton urged so strongly the danger of her lengthened stay in the house of so designing a man as Mr Harrel, that he prevailed with her to quit it without delay, and had himself the satisfaction of handing her to her chair.