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she found, merely to be married. On enquiry he discovered that this lady was Miss Beverly.

Cec. You will find all this, Sir, end in nothing.

Gent. That, Madam, remains to be proved. If a young lady is seen-and she was seen going into the church at eight o'clock in the morning, with a young gentleman and one female friend; and is afterwards seen coming out of it followed by a clergyman and one other person —and is seen to get into a coach with the same young gentleman and same female friend, why the circumstances are pretty strong.

Cec. They may seem so, Sir; but all conclusions drawn from them will be erroneous: I was not married then, upon my honour.

*

Gent. We have little to do, Madam, with professions; the circumstances are strong enough to bear a trial-and-: Cec. A trial?

--

Gent. We have found many witnesses to prove a number of particulars, and eight months share of such an estate as this, is well worth a lit le trouble.

Cec. I am amazed, Sir; surely Mr. Eggleston never authorised you to make use of this language to me.

Gent. Mr. Eggleston, madam, has behaved verv honorably; tho' he knew the whole affair, he supposed Mr. Delvill had good reasons for a short concealment, and expected every day when the matter would become pupile. He therefore did not interfere. But on hearing that Mr. Delvili had set out for the continent, he was advised to claim his rights.

Cec. His claims, Sir, will doubtless be satisfied without threatening or law suits.

Gent. The truth is, Madam, Mr. Eggleston is a little embarrassed for want of some money. This makes it a point with him, to have the affair settled speedily, unless you chuse to compromise, by advancing a parti cular sum till it suits you to refund the whole that is due to him, and quit the premises.

Cec, Nothing, Sir, is due to him; at least nothing worth mentioning. I will enter into no terms: 1 have no compromise to make. As to the premises, I will quit them as soon as possible.

Gent, You will do well, madam, for the truth is, if

will not be convenient for him to wait any longer. (be goes out.)

Cec. How weak and blind have I been, to form a secret plan of defrauding the heir to my uncle's estate: I am betrayed-and I deserve it. Never, never more will I disgrace myself by such an act.

Cecilia.

Scene between CECILIA and HENRIETTA.

WH

THAT is the matter with my dear Henrietta ? Who is it that has already afflicted that kind heart, which I am now compelled to afflict for my self.

Hen. No madam, not afflicted for you! it would be strange if I was, while I think as I now do,

Cec. I am glad you are not, for was it possible I would give you nothing but pleasure and joy.

Hen. Ah, madam, why will you say so, when you lon't care what becomes of me! When you are going to cast me off!-and when you will soon be too happy to think of me more!

Cec. Iflam never happy till then, sad indeed will be my life! no, my gentlest friend, you will always have your share in my heart and to me would always have been the welcomest guest in my house, but for those unhappy circumstances which make our separating inevitable.

Hen. Yet ou suffered me, madam, to hear from any body that you was married and going away; and all the common servants in the house knew it before me. Cec. I am amazed! How and whick onay can they have heard it ?

Hen. The man that went to Mr. Eggleston brought the first news of it, for he said all the servants there talked of nothing else, and that their master was to come and take possession here next Thursday..

Cec. Yet you envy me, tho I am forced to leave my house! tho' I am not provided with any other! and tho he for whom I relinquished it is far off, without the means of protecting me, or the power of returning home. Hen. But you are married to him, Madam.

Cec. True, my love, but I am also parted from him. Hen. O how differently do the great think from the little. Was I married and so married, I should want

neither house nor fine clothes, nor riches, nor any thing -I should not care where I lived-every place would be a paradise to me.

Cec. O Henrietta. Should I ever repine at my situation, I will call to mind this heroic declaration of yours, and blush for my own weakness.

Scene between DR. LYSTER, MR. DELVILL, MR. MORTIMER DELVILL, and CECILIA his wife, and LADY HONORIA.

Dr. Lyster. My good friends, in the course of my MY long practice I have found it impossi

ble to study the human frame, without looking a little into the mind; and from all that I have yet been able to make out, either by observation, reflection or comparison, it appears to me at this moment, that Mr. Mortimer Delvill has got the best wife, and you, Sir, [To Mr. Delvill] the most faultless daughter in law, that any husband or any father in law in the kingdom can have or desire. Lady Hon. When you say the best and most faultless, Dr. Lyster, you should always add, the rest of the company excepted.

Dr. Lys. Upon my word I beg your Ladyship's par don; but sometimes an unguarded warmth comes across a man, that drives ceremony from his head, and makes him speak truth before he well knows where he is.**

Lady Hon. Oh terrible! this is sinking deeper and deeper; I had hopes the town air had taught you better things; but 1 toad you have visited Delvill Castle, till you are fit for no other place.

Delv. [offended] Whoever, Lady Honoria, is fit for Delvill Castle, must be fit for every other place; tho' every other place may by no means be fit for him.

Lady Hon. O yes, Sir, every possible place will be fit for him, if he can once bear with that. Don't you think so, Dr. Lyster?

Dr. Lys. Why, when a man has the honour to see your Ladyship, he is apt to think too much of the person" to care about the place.

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Lady Hon. Come, I begin to have some hopes of you, for I see, for a Doctor, you really have a very pretty notion of a compliment. Only you have one great fault

still; you look the whole time as if you said it for joke. Dr. Lys. Why in fact, Madam, when a man has been a plain dealer both in word and look for fifty years, 'tis expecting too quick a reformation to demand ductility of voice and eye from him at a blow. However, give me a little time and a little encouragement, and with stich a tutoress, 'twill be hard, if I do not, in a few lessons, learn the right method of seasoning a simper, and the newest fashion of twisting words from their meaning.

Lady Hon. But pray, Sir, always remember on these occasions to look serious. Nothing sets off a compliment so much as a long face. If you are tempted to an unseasonable laugh, think of Delvill Castle; 'tis an expedient I commonly make use of myself, when I am afraid of being too frolick some; and it always succeeds, for the very thought of it gives me the head-ache in a moment. I wonder, Mr. Delvill, you keep your health so good; after living in that horrible place so long. I have expected to hear of your death at the end of every summer, and I assure you, I was once very near buying mourning. Delv. The estate which descends to a man from his ancestors, Lady Honoria, will seldom be apt to injure his health, if he is conscious of committing no misdemeanor which has degraded their memory.

Lady Hon. [in a low voice to Cecilia] How vastly odious is this new father of yours. What could-ever induce you to give up your charming estate for the sake of coming into his fusty old family? I would really advise you to have your marriage annulled. You know you

have only to take an oath that you were forcibly run away with; and as you are an heiress, and the Delvill's are all so violent, it will easily be believed. And then, 'as soon as you are at liberty, I would advise you to marry my little lord Derford.

Cec. Would you only then have me gain my freedom in order to part with it?

Lady Hon. Certainly; for you can do nothing at all without being married. A single woman is a thousand times more shackled than a wife; for she is accountable to every body; and a wife, you know, has nothing to do but just to manage her husband.

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Cec. [smiling. And that you consider as a trifle!

Lady Hon. Yes, if you do but marry a man you don't

care for

Cec. You are right, then, indeed, to recommend to me my Lord Derford.

Lady Hon, Oyes, he will make the prettiest husband In the world; you may fly about yourself as wild as a lark, and keep him the whole time as tame as a jackdaw. And tho' he may complain of you to your friends, he will never have the courage to find fault to your face. But as to Mortimer, you will not be able to govern him as long as you live; for the momeut you have put him upon the fret, you will fall into the dumps yourself, hold out your hand to him, and losing the opportunity of gaining some material point, make up with him at the first soft word.

Cec. You think then the quarrel more amusing than the recollection ?

Lady Hon. O a thousand times! for while you are quarrelling you may say any thing and demand any thing; but when you are reconciled, you ought to behave pretty, and seem contented,

Cec. If any gentleman has any pretensions to your ladyship, he must be made very happy indeed to hear your principles.

Lady Hon. O, it would not signify at all; for one's fathers and uncles and such people always make connections for one; and not a soul thinks of our principles till they find them out by our conduct; and nobod, can possibly find them out till we are married, for they give us no power before hand. The men know nothing of 'us in the word, while we are single, but how we can dance a minuet, or play a lesson upon the harpsichord.

Del: And what else need a young lady of rank desire to be known for ? Your ladyship would surely not have her degrade herself by studying like an artist or professor.

Lady Hon. O no, Sir, I would not have her study at all its mighty well for children; but really after sixteen, and when one is come out, one has quite fatigue enough in dressing and going to public places and ordering new things, without all the torment of first and second position, and E upon the first line, and F upon the first space.

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