“What a treasure, to meet with any thing a new heart—all hearts, nowadays, are secondhand at best.”
Lady Delacour is attracted to Belinda for her personality because she's so different from any person she's met before. In a society which demands a great deal of conformity, Belinda makes no apologies for her idiosyncrasies. This impresses her benefactor because she brings something novel into her tired, old life. At her age, Lady Delacour is tired of fake people. She is impressed by individuality and confidence.
“Clarence Hervey might have been more than a pleasant young man, if he had not been smitten with the desire of being thought superior in every thing, and of being the most admired person in all companies. He had been early flattered with the idea that he was a man of genius; and he imagined that, as such, he was entitled to be imprudent, wild, and eccentric. He affected singularity, in order to establish his claims to genius. He had considerable literary talents, by which he was distinguished at Oxford; but he was so dreadfully afraid of passing for a pedant, that when he came into the company of the idle and the ignorant, he pretended to disdain every species of knowledge. His chameleon character seemed to vary in different lights, and according to the different situations in which he happened to be placed. He could be all things to all men—and to all women.”
Belinda likes Clarence, but she can't stand his social adaptation. He doesn't know who he is, or he chooses to hide who he is to all around him. He cares about fame and reputation, but he preserves those things for himself by playing a different role for every single person. For Belinda, who is confident in her identity, she desires a man who shares those qualities which she can admire. She needs some sincerity from Clarence before she accepts him.
“. . . For observe, with me esteem ever followed affection, instead of affection following esteem. Woe be to all who in morals preposterously put the cart before the horse!”
Belinda is a young woman of convictions. If she had met a suitor for whom she felt affection, she would've pursued him before now. To her, admiration is not enough to qualify one as a romantic match. She wants to first desire a person because she esteems so many already that she could never choose based upon that alone. Within the context of understanding a person's character she believes true admiration will naturally follow.
