the whole, and I
presume that he has pardoned that episode. In spite of the expression
of feelings which I have been unable to control, you must believe,
dear Cecilia, that I am as anxious as ever for your happiness, and
am,

"Your most affectionate friend,

"FRANCESCA ALTIFIORLA."

Cecilia, when she had completed the reading of the letter, believed
nothing of the kind. That last paragraph about Sir Francis had turned
all her kindly feelings into wrath, and contained one word which she
knew not how to endure. She was told that Mr. Western had "pardoned"
the Geraldine episode in her life. She had done nothing for which
pardon had been necessary. To merit pardon there must have been
misconduct; and as this woman had known all her behaviour in that
matter, what right had she to talk of pardon? In what had she
deserved pardon;--or at any rate the pardon of Mr. Western? There had
been a foolish engagement made between her and Sir Francis Geraldine,
which had been most wisely dissolved. The sin, if sin there had been,
was against Sir Francis, and certainly had never been considered as
sin by this woman who now wrote to her. Was it a sin that she had
loved before, a matter as to which Mr. Western was necessarily in
ignorance when he first came to her? But might it not come to pass
that his pardon should be required in that the story had never been
told to him? It was the sting which came from that feeling which
added fierceness to her wrath. "Of course you have told him the
whole, and I presume that he has pardoned that episode!" She had not
told Mr. Western the whole, and had thus created another episode for
which his pardon might be required. It was this that the woman had
intended to insinuate, understanding with her little sharpness, with
her poor appreciation of character, how probable it was that Cecilia
should not have told him of her previous engagement.

She sat thinking of it all that night till the matter assumed new
difficulties in her mind's eyesight. And she began to question to
herself whether Mr. Western had a right to her secret,--whether the
secret did not belong to two persons, and she was bound to keep it
for the sake of the other person. She had committed a wrong, an
injury, or at any rate had inflicted a deserved punishment upon Sir
Francis; one as to which a man would naturally much dislike that
it should be noised about the world. Was she not bound to keep her
secret still a secret for his sake