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Mrs. Mech. Very well, you may go.-[Exit Jenny.]-1 fay, you know the great commiffary, that is come to lodge in my houfe. Now they fay this Mr. Fungus is as rich as an Indian governor; heaven knows how he came by it: but that you know is no bufinefs of ours. Pretty pickings, I warrant, abroad.-[Loud knocking. Who the deuce can that be? But let it be who it will, you must not go till I speak to you.

Enter JENNY.

Jen. The widow Loveit, ma'am.

Mrs. Mech. What, the old liquorifh dowager from Devonshire Square? fhew her in.-[Exit Jenny. You'll wait in the kitchen, Simon, I shall foon dispatch her affair. [Exit Simon.

Enter Mrs. LOVEIT.

Mrs. Lov. So, fo, good morning to you, good Mrs. Mechlin. John, let the coach stand at the

corner.

Mrs. Mech. You had better fit here, madam. Mrs. Lov. Any where. Well, my dear woman, I hope you have not forgot your old friend -Ugh, ugh, ugh,-[coughs.]-Confider I have no time to loofe, and you are always fo full of employment.

Mrs. Mech. Forgot you! you fhall judge, Mrs. Loveit. I have, ma'am, provided a whole cargo of husbands for you, of all nations, complexions, ages, tempers, and fizes: fo you fee you have nothing to do but choose.

Mrs. Lov. To choose! Mrs. Mechlin; Lord help me, what choice can I have? I look upon wedlock to be a kind of a lottery, and I have already drawn my prize; and a great one it was!

My

My poor dear man that's gone, I fhall never meet with his fellow.

Mrs. Mech. 'Pfhaw! madam, don't let us trouble our heads about him, it's high time that he was forgot.

Mrs. Lov. But won't his relations think me rather too quick.

Mrs Mech. Not a jot; the greatest compliment you could pay to his memory; it is a proof he gave you reafon to be fond of the ftate. But what do you mean by quick! Why he has been buried thefe three weeks

Mrs. Lov. And three days, Mrs. Mechlin.
Mrs. Mech. Indeed! quite an age!

Mrs. Lov. Yes; but I fhall never forget him; fleeping, or waking, he's always before me. His dear fwelled belly, and his poor fhrunk legs, Lord blefs me, Mrs. Mechlin, he had no more calf than my fan.

Mrs. Mech. No!

Mrs. Lou. No, indeed; and then, his bit of a purple nose, and his little weezen face as sharp as a razor-don't mention it, I can never forget him. [Cries.

Mrs. Mech. Sweet marks of remembrance, indeed. But, ma'am, if you continue to be fo fond of your last husband, what makes you think of another?

Mrs. Lov. Why, what can I do, Mrs. Mechlin? a poor lone widow woman as I am; there's no body minds me; my tenants behind-hand, my fervants all careless, my children undutiful—Ugh, ugh, ugh[Coughs. Mrs. Mech. You have a villainous cough, Mrs. Loveit; fhall I fend for fome lozenges?

Mrs

Mrs. Lov. No, I thank you, it's nothing at all; mere habit, juft a little trick I've got.

Mrs. Mech. But I wonder you should have all thefe vexations to plague you, madam, you, who are fo rich, and fo

Mrs. Lau. Forty thousand in the Four per Cents. every morning I rife, Mrs. Mechlin, befides two houfes at Hackney; but then my. affairs are fo weighty and intricate; there is fuch tricking in lawyers, and fuch torments in children, that I can't do by myself; I must have a helpmate; quite neceffity, no matter of choice.

Mrs. Mech. Oh, I understand you, you marry merely for convenience; juft only to get an affiftant, a kind of a guard, a fence to your property? Mrs. Lov. Nothing else.

Mrs. Mech. I thought fo; quite prudential; fo that age is none of your object; you don't want a fcampering, giddy, fprightly, young

Mrs. Lov. Young! Heaven forbid. What, do you think, like fome ladies I know, that I want to have my husband taken for one of my grand-children; No, no; thank Heaven, fuch vain thoughts never entered my head.

Mrs. Mech. But yet, as your matters ftand, he ought not to be fo very old neither; for inftance now, of what ufe to you would be a husband of fixty?

Mrs. Lov. Sixty! Are you mad, Mrs. Mechlin, what do you think I want to turn nurse ?

Mrs. Mech. Or fifty-five?

Mrs. Love. Ugh, ugh, ugh

Mrs. Mech. Or fifty?

Mrs. Lov. Oh! that's too cunning an age; men, now-a-days, rarely marry at fifty, they are too knowing and cautious.

Mrs.

Mrs. Mech. Or forty-five, or forty, orMrs. Lov. Shall, I Mrs. Mechlin, tell you a piece of my mind?

Mrs. Mech. I believe ma'am that will be your best way.

Mrs. Lov. Why then, as my children are young and rebellious, the way to fecure and preferve their obedience, will be to marry a man that won't grow old in a hurry.

Mrs. Mech. Why I thought you declared against youth.

Mrs. Lov. So I do, fo I do; but then, fix or feven and twenty is not fo very young, Mrs. Mechlin.

Mrs. Mech. No, no, a pretty ripe age; for at that time of life, men can buftle and ftir, they are not easily check'd, and whatever they take in hand they go through with.

Mrs. Lov. True, true.

Mrs. Mech. Ay, ay, it is then they may be faid to be useful; it is the only tear and wear season.

Mrs. Lov. Right, right.

Mrs. Mech. Well, ma'am, I fee what you want, and to-morrow about this time, if you'll do me the favour to call

Mrs. Lov I shan't fail.

Mrs. Mech. I think I can fuit you.

Mrs. Lov. You'll be very obliging.

Mrs. Mech. You may depend upon't, I'll do my

endeavours.

Mrs. Lov. But, Mrs. Mechlin, be fure don't let him be older than that, not above feven or eight and twenty at moft; and let it be as foon as you conveniently can.

Mrs. Mech. Never fear, ma'am.

Mrs.

Mrs. Lov. Because you know, the more children I have by the fecond venture, the greater plague I fhall prove to those I had by the first.

Mrs. Mech. True ma'am. You had better lean on me to the door; but, indeed, Mrs. Loveit, you are very malicious to your children, very revengeful, indeed.

Mrs. Lov. Ah, they deferve it; you can't think what fad whelps they turn out; no punishment can be too much; if their poor father could but have foreseen they would have-why did I mention the dear man! it melts me too much. Well, peace be with him.- -To-morrow about this time, Mrs. Mechlin, will the party be here, think you?

Mrs. Mech. I can't fay.

Mrs. Lov. Well, a good day, good Mrs. Mechlin.

Mrs. Mah. Here, John, take care of your miftrefs. [Exit Mrs. Loveit.]-A good morning to you, ma'am. Jenny, bid Simon come up.-A husband! there now is a proof of the prudence of age; I wonder they don't add a claufe to the act to prevent the old from marrying clandeftinely as well as the young. I am fure there are as many unfuitable matches at this time of life as the other.

Enter SIMON.

Shut the door, Simon. Are there any of Mr. Fungus's fervants below?

Sim. Three or four ftrange faces.

Mrs. Mech. Ay, ay, fome of that troop, I fuppofe; come, Simon, be feated. Well, Simon, as I was telling you; this Mr. Fungus, my lodger above, that has brought home from the wars a whole cart load of money, and who, (between you

and

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