Where was the harm, in broad daylight! and with Arabella to accompany them--as far as the last steps, and then to be dropped?
Cecilia felt like a school-girl on a forbidden treat.
When they were well out of sight of all observation, Mr.Hanbury-Green began.

He told her that he loved her, in all the most impressive language he was master of; he felt that with her he might with safety and success use the same flamboyant metaphors and exaggerations with which he was accustomed to move his constituents.

No restraint or attention to accuracy was necessary here.

And if his voice in his honest excitement would have sounded a little cockney in Arabella's cultured ears, Cecilia Cricklander did not notice it.

On the contrary, she thought the whole thing was the finest-sounding harangue she had ever heard in her life.
He went on to say that he could not live without her, and implored her to throw over John Derringham and promise to be his wife.
"He thinks you are madly in love with him, darling," he said, knowing this would sting, "and will stand any of his airs.