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Fair. Your honour is to do as you please. Lord Aim. What say you, Patty, will you accept of a husband of my chusing?

parts! This is as queer a thing as ever I heard Lord Aim. Why, yes, Master Fairfield, I have of. Master Fairfield and Miss Patty, it seems, a word or two still to say to you-In short, though are gone to the castle, too; where, by what I you are satisfied in this affair, I am not; and you larns from Raph in the mill, my lord has pro- seem to forget the promise I made to you, that, mised to get her a husband among the servants. since I had been the means of losing your daughNow set in case the wind sets in that corner, Iter one husband, I would find her another. have been thinking with myself who the plague it can be there are no unmarried men in the family, that I do know of excepting little Bob, the postillion, and master Jonathan, the butler; and he's a matter of sixty or seventy years old. I'll be shot if it ben't little Bob! Icod, I'll take the way to the castle, as well as the rest; for I'd fain see how the nail do drive. It is well I had wit enough to discern things, and a friend to advise with, or else she would have fallen to my lot. But I have got a surfeit of going a courting, and burn me if I won't live a bachelor! for when all comes to all, I see nothing but ill blood and quarrels among folk when they are married.

AIR.

Then hey for a frolicsome life!
I'll ramble where pleasures are rife:
Strike up with the free hearted lasses;
And never think more of a wife.

Plague on it! men are but asses,
To run after noise and strife.

Had we been together buckled, 'Twould have proved a fine affuir; Dogs would bave barked at the cuckold, And boys, pointing, cried-Look there! [Exit GILES. SCENE III.-An Apartment in LORD AIMWORTH'S House, opening to a view of the garden.

Enter LORD AIMWORTH, FAIRfield, Patty, and RALPH.

Lord Aim. Thus, Master Fairfield, I hope I have fully satisfied you with regard to the falsity of the imputation thrown upon your daughter

and me.

Fair. My lord, I am well content; pray very do not give yourself the trouble of saying any

more.

Ralph. No, my lord, you need not say any

more.

Fair. Hold your tongue, sirrah. Lord Aim. I am sorry, Patty, you have had this mortification.

Pat. Iam sorry, my lord, you have been troubled about it; but really, it was against my con

sent.

Pat. My lord, I have no determination; you are the best judge how I ought to act; whatever you command, I shall obey.

Lord Aim. Then, Patty, there is but one person I can offer you-and I wish, for your sake, he was more deserving-Take me. Pat. Sir!

Lord Aim. From this moment our interests are one, as our hearts; and no earthly power shall ever divide us.

Fair. O the gracious! Patty-my lord-did I hear right! You, sir! you marry a child of mine !

Lord Aim. Yes, my honest old man! in me you behold the husband design'd for your daughter; and I am happy, that, by standing in the place of fortune, who has alone been wanting to her, I shall be able to set her merit in a light, where its lustre will be rendered conspicuous.

Fair. But, good, noble sir, pray consider! don't go to put upon a silly old man! my daughter is unworthy-Patty, child, why don't you speak?

Pat. What can I say, father? What answer to such unlooked for, such unmerited, such unbounded generosity.

ing.

Ralph. Down on your knees, and fall a cry

Pat. Yes, sir, as my father says, consider your noble friends, your relations—It must not, cannot be.

Lord Aim. It must, and shall-Friends! Re

lations! from henceforth I have none, that will become acquainted with your perfections, those, not acknowledge you: and I am sure, when they whose suffrage I most esteem, will rather admire the justice of my choice, than wonder at its singularity.

AIR.

Lord Aim. My life, my joy, my blessing,
In thee, each grace possessing,
All must my choice approve.

Pat.

To you my all is owing,
Oh! take a heart o'erflowing
With gratitude and love.

Fair. Well, come, children, we will not take Lord Aim. Thus enfolding,

up his honour's time any longer; let us be going towards home-Heaven prosper your lordship!

the prayers of me and my family shall always Both. attend you.

Lord Aim. Miller, come back-Patty, stayFair. Has your lordship any thing further to command us?

Thus beholding

One to my soul so dear:
Can there be pleasure greater!
Can there be bliss completer!

'Tis too much to bear.

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Lord Aim. You do me a great deal of honour. I wish you joy, sir, with all my heart! And now, Sir Harry, give me leave to introduce to you a new relation of mine-- -This, sir, is shortly to be my wife.

Sir Har. My lord

Lady Syc. Your lordship's wife!
Lord Aim. Yes, madam.

Lady Syc. And why so, my lord?

Lord Aim. Why, faith, madam, because I can't live happy without her—And I think she has too many amiable, too many estimable qualities,

to meet with a worse fate.

Sir Har. Well, but you are a peer of the realm; you will have all the fleerers

Lord Aim. I know very well the ridicule, that may be thrown on a lord's marrying a miller's daughter; and I own, with blushes, it has for some time had too great weight with me but we should marry to please ourselves, not other people and, on mature consideration, I can see no reproach justly merited, by raising a deserving woman to a station she is capable of adorning, let her birth be what it will.

:

Sir Har. Why, 'tis very true, my lord. I once knew a gentleman, that married his cookmaid: he was a relation of my own- -You remember fat Margery, my lady? She was a very good sort of a woman, indeed she was, and made the best suit dumplings I ever tasted.

Lady Syc. Will you never learn, Sir Harry, to guard your expressions? Well, but give me leave, my lord, to say a word to youThere are other ill consequences attending such an alliance.

Lord Aim. One of them I suppose is, that I, a peer, should be obliged to call this good old miller father-in-law? But where's the shame in that? He is as good as any lord, in being a man ; and if we dare suppose a lord, that is not an honest man, he is, in my opinion, the more respectable character. Come, Master Fairfield, give me your hand; from henceforth you have done with working; we will pull down your mill, and build you a house in the place of it; and the money I intended for the portion of your daughter, shall now be laid out in purchasing a commission for your son.

Ralph. What, my lord, will you make me a captain!

Lord Aim. Ay, a colonel, if you deserve it.
Ralph. Then I'll keep Fan.

Enter GILES.

Giles. Ods bobs! where am I running? I beg pardon for my audacity.

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Lord Aim. What, have you nothing to say to your old acquaintance? Come, pray let the farmer salute you-Nay, a kiss-I insist upon it. Sir Har. Ha, ha, ha!—Hem!

Lady Syc. Sir Harry, I am ready to sink at the monstrousness of your behaviour.

Lord Aim. Fy, Master Giles! don't look so sheepish; you and I were rivals, but not less friends at present. You have acted in this affair like an honest Englishman, who scorned even the shadow of dishonour, and thou shalt sit rent

free for a twelvemonth.

Sir Har. Come, shan't we all salute? With your leave, my lord, I'llLady Syc. Sir Harry!

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Ursula. I am acquainted with every ward of them.

Don Diego. You know, Ursula, when I took Leonora from her father and mother, she was to live in the house with me three months; at the expiration of which time, I entered into a bond of four thousand pistoles, either to return her to them spotless, with half that sum for a dowry, or make her my true and lawful wife.

Ursula. And I warrant you, they came secretly to enquire of me, whether they might venture to trust your worship;-Lord, said I, I have lived with the gentleman nine years aud three quarters, come lammas, and never saw any thing uncivil by him in my life; nor, no more I ever did and to let your worship know, if I had, you would have mistaken your person; for, I bless Heaven, though I am poor, I'm honest, and would not live with any man alive, that should want to handle me unlawfully.

Don Diego. Ursula, I do believe it; and you are particularly happy, that both your age and your person exempt you from any such temptation. But, be this as it will, Leonora's parents, after some difficulty, consented to comply with my proposal; and, being fully satisfied with their daughter's temper and conduct, which I wanted

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she holds in the other Hand by a String.

to be acquainted with, this day being the expira- | Enter LEONORA with a Bird on her Finger, which tion of the term, I am resoved to fulfil my bond, by marrying her to-morrow.

Ursula. Heaven bless you together!

Don Diego. During the time she has lived with me, she has never been a moment out of my sight; and now, tell me, Ursula, what have you observed in her?

Ursula. All meekness and gentleness, your worship; and yet, I warrant you, shrewd and sensible; egad! when she pleases, she can be as sharp as a needle.

Don Diego. You have not been able to discover any particular attachments?

Ursula. Why, sir, of late I have observed-
Don Diego. Eh! how! what?

Ursula. That she has taken greatly to the young kitten.

Don Diego. O! is that all?

Ursula. Ay, by my faith! I don't think she is fond of any thing else.

Don Diego. Of me! Ursula ?

Ursula. Ay, ay, of the kitten and your worship, and her birds, and going to mass. I have taken notice of late, that she is mighty fond of going to mass, as your worship lets her early of a morning.

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Don Diego. Well! I am now going to her pa-like rents, to let them know my resolution. I will not take her with me: because, having been used to confinement, and it being the life I am determined she shall lead, it will be only giving her a bad habit. I shall return with the good folks to-morrow morning; in the mean time, Ursula, I confide in your attention; and take care, as you would merit my favour.

Don Diego. When you came hither, you were taken from a mean little house, ill situated, and worse furnished; you had no servants, and were obliged, with your mother, to do the work your

self.

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