h silenced her.

Cecilia was so infatuated with her vanity, that she neither perceived
Leonora's sign, nor Louisa's confusion, but continued showing off her
present, by placing it in various situations, till at length she put it
into the case, and laying it down with an affected carelessness upon the
bed, "I must go now, Louisa. Good bye," said she, running up and kissing
her; "but I'll come again presently;" then clapping the door after her,
she went.

But as soon as the fermentation of her spirits subsided, the sense of
shame, which had been scarcely felt when mixed with so many other
sensations, rose uppermost in her mind. "What?" said she to herself,
"is it possible that I have sold what I promised to keep for ever? and
what Leonora gave me? and I have concealed it too, and have been making
a parade of my generosity. O! what would Leonora, what would Louisa,
what would every body think of me, if the truth were known?"

Humiliated and grieved by these reflections, Cecilia began to search in
her own mind for some consoling idea. She began to compare her conduct
with the conduct of others of her own age; and at length, fixing her
comparison upon her brother George, as the companion of whom, from her
infancy, she had been habitually the most emulous, she recollected that
an almost similar circumstance had once happened to him, and that he had
not only escaped disgrace, but had acquired glory by an intrepid
confession of his fault. Her father's words to her brother, on that
occasion, she also perfectly recollected.

"Come to me, George," he said, holding out his hand; "you are a
generous, brave boy. They who dare to confess their faults will make
great and good men."

These were his words; but Cecilia, in repeating them to herself, forgot
to lay that emphasis on the word _men_, which would have placed it in
contradistinction to the word women. She willingly believed that the
observation extended equally to both sexes, and flattered herself that
she should exceed her brother in merit, if she owned a fault which she
thought that it would be so much more difficult to confess. "Yes, but,"
said she, stopping herself, "how can I confess it? This very evening, in
a few hours, the prize will be decided; Leonora or I shall win it. I
have now as good a chance as Leonora, perhaps a better; and must I give
up all my hopes? all that I have been labouring for this month past! O,
I never can;--if it were to-morrow, or yesterday, o