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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 prov'd a fine affair:

Dogs would have bark'd at the cuckold,

And boys, pointing, cry'd—“ Look there."

SCENE IV.

[Exit.

A grand Apartment in LORD AIMWORTH'S House, opening to a View of the Garden.

Enter LORD AIMWORTH, FAIRFIELD, PATTY, and

RALPH.

Lord A. 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 very well content; pray 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 A. I am sorry, Patty, you have had this mortification.

Patty. I am sorry, my lord, you have been troubled about it; but really it was against my consent.

Fair. Well, come, children, we will not take 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 attend you. Lord A. Miller, come back-Patty, stay.

Fair. Has your lordship any thing further to command us?

Lord A. Why, yes, Master Fairfield, I have a word or two still to say to you-In short, though you are satisfied in this affair, I am not; and you seem to forget the promise I made you, that, since I had been the means of losing your daughter one husband, I would find her another.

Fair. Your honour is to do as you please.

Lord A. What say you, Patty, will you accept of a husband of my chusing?

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

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

Patty. Sir!

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

us.

Fair. Oh the gracious! Patty-my lord-Did I hear right?—You, sir? you marry a child of mine!

Lord A. Yes, my honest old man; in me you behold the husband designed for your daughter; and I am happy that, by standing in the place of fortune, which 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?

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

Ralph. Down on your knees, and fall a-crying.

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

Lord A. It must, and shall-Friends! relations !— from henceforth, I have none, that will not acknowledge you and I am sure, when they become acquainted with your perfections, those, whose suffrage I most esteem, will rather admire the justice of my choice, than wonder at its singularity.

AIR.

approve :

Lord A. My life, my joy, my blessing!
In thee each grace possessing;
All must my choice
To you my all is owing;
Oh! take a heart o'erflowing
With gratitude and love.
Thus infolding,

Patty.

Lord A.

Both.

Thus beholding,

One to my soul so dear :
Can there be pleasure greater
Can there be bliss completer?
'Tis too much to bear!

Enter SIR HARRY, LADY SYCAMORE, THEODOSIA, and MERVIN.

Sir Harry. Well, we have followed your lordship's counsel, and made the best of a bad market-So, my lord, please to know our son-in-law, that is to be.

Lord A. 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 Harry. My lord!

Lady S. Your lordship's wife!
Lord A. Yes, madam.

Lady S. And why so, my lord?

Lord A. Why, 'faith, ma'am, 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 Harry. Well, but you are a peer of the realm; you will have all the fleerers

Lord A. 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 Harry. Why, 'tis very true, my lord.-1 once knew a gentleman that married his cook-maid: 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 suet dumplings I ever tasted.

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

Lord A. One of them, I suppose is, that I, a peer, should be obliged to call this good old miller, fatherin-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 the purchase of a commission for your

son.

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

Lord A. 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.

Ralph. Hip, farmer! come back, mon, come back -Sure my lord's going to marry sister himself; feyther's to have a fine house, and I'm to be a captain.

Lord A. Ho, Master Giles, pray walk in; here is a lady, who, I dare say, will be glad to see you, and give orders that you shall always be made welcome. Ralph. Yes, Farmer, you'll always be welcome in

the kitchen.

Lord A. 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 Harry. Ha! ha! ha!-hem!

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

Lord A. Fie, 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 English

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