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"Is this conflict, then," said Mrs Delvile, "to last for-ever? Oh end it, Mortiive you, she is noble-minded, and will honour you Fly, then, at this critical ht alone is your safety; and then will your father see the son of his hopes, and then shall the fond blessings of your idolizing ret!"

"Oh madam!" cried Delvile, "for mercy, for humanity, forbear this cruel supplication!"

"Nay, more than supplication, you have my commands; commands you have never yet disputed, and misery, ten-fold misery, will follow their disobedience Hear me, Mortimer, for I speak prophetically; I know your heart, I know it to be forlect to repentance and horror"

Delvile, struck by these words, turned suddenly froloomy despondence walked to the other end of the room Mrs Delvile perceived the , therefore, the hand of Cecilia, while her eyes sparkled with the ani to her son, "see if I aestion of future contrition! Think you when it falls upon him, he will support it better? No; he will sink under it And you, pure as you are of mind, and steadfast in principle, ould your chance be of happiness with atill he knew you, could never look at you without regret, be his fondness what it reatly shocked Cecilia, "let hiive, console hi hi the reproaches of the mother he so much reverences!"

"Exalted creature!" cried Mrs Delvile; "tenderness such as this would confer honour upon a ly to her son, "See," she added, "how great a woenerosity, and a just sense of duty! Follow then, at least, the exaht to have led, and deserve o them"

"And can I only deserve theuish, "by a compliance to which not merely my happiness, but my reason must be sacrificed? What honour do I injure that is not factitious? What evil threatens our union, that is not iht to yield to its prejudices, but in matters of serious importance, it is weakness to be shackled by scruples so frivolous, and it is cowardly to be governed by the custoion and the laws of our country should then alone be consulted, and where those are neither opposed nor infringed, we should hold ourselves superior to all other considerations"