"I have known him but a short time, Sir; but I think of him very highly."
"Is he a good man? that's the point, is he a good man?"
"Indeed he appears to me uncommonly benevolent and charitable."
"But that i'n't the thing; is he warm? that's the point, is he warm?"
"If you mean passionate," said Cecilia, "I believe the energy of his manner is merely to enforce what he says."
"Don't take me, don't take me," cried he, impatiently; "can come down with the ready, that's the matter; can chink the little gold boys? eh?"
"Why I rather fear not by his appearance; but I know nothing of his affairs."
"What does come for? eh? come a courting?"
"Mercy on me, no!"
"What for then? only a spunging?"
"No, indeed. He seems to have no wish but to assist and plead for others."
"All fudge! think he i'n't touched? ay, ay; nothing but a trick! only to get at the chink: see he's as poor as a rat, talks of nothing but giving money; a bad sign! if he'd got any, would not do it. Wanted to make us come down; warrant thought to bam us all! out there! a'n't so soon gulled."
A knock at the street door gave now a new interruption, and Mr Delvile at length appeared.
Cecilia, whom his sight could not fail to disconcert, felt doubly distressed by the unnecessary presence of Albany and Hobson; she regretted the absence of Mr Monckton, who could easily have taken them away; for though without scruple she could herself have acquainted Mr Hobson she had business, she dreaded offending Albany, whose esteem she was ambitious of obtaining.
Mr Delvile entered the room with an air stately and erect; he took off his hat, but deigned not to make the smallest inclination of his head, nor offered any excuse to Mr Briggs for being past the hour of his appointment: but having advanced a few paces, without looking either to the right or left, said, "as I have never acted, my coming may not, perhaps, be essential; but as my name is in the Dean's Will, and I have once or twice met the other executors mentioned in it, I think it a duty I owe to my own heirs to prevent any possible future enquiry or trouble to them."
This speech was directly addressed to no one, though meant to be attended to by every one, and seemed proudly uttered as a mere apology to himself for not having declined the meeting.
Cecilia, though she recovered from her confusion by the help of her aversion to this self-sufficiency, made not any answer. Albany retired to a corner of the room; Mr Hobson began to believe it was time for him to depart; and Mr Briggs thinking only of the quarrel in which he had separated with Mr Delvile in the summer, stood swelling with venom, which he longed for an opportunity to spit out.