A deep sigh escaped Cecilia at this speech; she guessed too well what she might have heard, and she knew too well how it might be contradicted.
"Surely, you cannot be unhappy, Miss Beverley!" said Henrietta, with a look of mingled surprise and concern.
"I have much, I own," cried Cecilia, assuming more chearfulness, "to be thankful for, and I endeavour not to forget it."
"O how often do I think," cried Henrietta, "that you, madam, are the happiest person in the world! with every thing at your own disposal,-- with every body in love with you, with all the money that you can wish for, and so much sweetness that nobody can envy you it! with power to keep just what company you please, and every body proud to be one of the number!--Oh if I could chuse who I would be, I should sooner say Miss Beverley than any princess in the world!"
Ah, thought Cecilia, if such is my situation,--how cruel that by one dreadful blow all its happiness should be thrown away!
"Were I a rich lady, like you," continued Henrietta, "and quite in my own power, then, indeed, I might soon think of nothing but those people that I admire! and that makes me often wonder that you, madam, who are just such another as himself--but then, indeed, you may see so many of the same sort, that just this one may not so much strike you: and for that reason I hope with all my heart that he will never be married as long as he lives, for as he must take some lady in just such high life as his own, I should always be afraid that she would never love him as she ought to do!"
He need not now be single, thought Cecilia, were that all he had cause to apprehend!
"I often think," added Henrietta, "that the rich would be as much happier for marrying the poor, as the poor for marrying the rich, for then they would take somebody that would try to deserve their kindness, and now they only take those that know they have a right to it. Often and often have I thought so about this very gentleman! and sometimes when I have been in his company, and seen his civility and his sweetness, I have fancied I was rich and grand myself, and it has quite gone out of my head that I was nothing but poor Henrietta Belfield!"
"Did he, then," cried Cecilia a little alarmed, "ever seek to ingratiate himself into your favour?"
"No, never! but when treated with so much softness, 'tis hard always to remember one's meanness! You, madam, have no notion of that task: no more had I myself till lately, for I cared not who was high, nor who was low: but now, indeed, I must own I have some times wished myself richer! yet he assumes so little, that at other times, I have almost forgot all distance between us, and even thought--Oh foolish thought!-"Tell it, sweet Henrietta, however!"