awn out
through mine ears not my brain only, but my heart also.'

Then among other of her devotees were Norris, the singer, and Mr. Watts,
a rich gentleman-commoner, who had also met her at Oxford. Surely with
such and other rivals, the chances of the quiet, unpretending,
undemonstrative boy of nineteen were small. But no, Miss Linley was
foolish enough to be captivated by genius, and charmed by such poems as
the quiet boy wrote to her, of which this is, perhaps, one of the
prettiest:

'Dry that tear, my gentlest love;
Be hush'd that struggling sigh,
Nor seasons, day, nor fate shall prove
More fix'd, more true than I.
Hush'd be that sigh, be dry that tear;
Cease boding doubt, cease anxious fear:
Dry be that tear.

'Ask'st thou how long my love will stay,
When all that's new is past?
How long, ah Delia, can I say
How long my life will last?
Dry be that tear, be hush'd that sigh,
At least I'll love thee till I die:
Hush'd be that sigh.

'And does that thought affect thee too,
The thought of Sylvio's death,
That he who only breath'd for you,
Must yield that faithful breath?
Hush'd be that sigh, be dry that tear,
Nor let us lose our Heaven here:
Be dry that tear.'

The many adorers had not the remotest suspicion of this devotion, and
'gave her' to this, that, or the other eligible personage; but the
villanous conduct of a scoundrel soon brought the matter to a crisis.
The whole story was as romantic as it could be. In a three-volume novel,
critics, always so just and acute in their judgment, would call it
far-fetched, improbable, unnatural; in short, anything but what should
be the plot of the pure 'domestic English story.' Yet, here it is with
almost dramatic effect, the simple tale of what really befel one of our
most celebrated men.

Yes, to complete the fiction-like aspect of the affair, there was even a
'captain' in the matter--as good a villain as ever shone in short hose
and cut doublet at the 'Strand' or 'Victoria.' Captain Matthews was a
married man, and a very naughty one. He was an intimate friend of the
Linleys, and wanted to push his intimacy too far. In short, 'not to put
too fine a point on it' (too fine a point is precisely what never _is_
put), he attempted to seduce the pretty, innocent girl, and not dismayed
at one failure, went on again and again. 'Cecilia,' knowing the temper
of Linley pere, was afraid to expose him to her fathe