SCENE II.-A Dressing-Room in Mrs. Malaprop's

Lodgings.

LYDIA LANGUISH sitting on a Sofa, with a Book in her hand;-Lucy, as just returned from a Message on her R.

Lucy. Indeed, ma'am, I traversed half the town in search of it: I don't believe there's circulating library in Bath I han't't been at.

LYD. And could not you get "The Reward of Constancy.

LUCY No, indeed, ma'am.

LYD. Nor" The Fatal Connexion?
Lucy. No, indeed, ma'am.

LYD. Nor

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The Mistakes of the Heart?"

Lucy. Ma'am, as i!l luck would have it, Mr. Bull said, Miss Sukey Saunter had just fetched it away.

LYD. Heigho! Did you inquire for "The Delicate Distress?"

-Yes,

Lucy. O, "The Memoirs of Lady Woodford ?" indeed, ma'am I asked every where for it; and I might have brought it from Mr. Frederick's, but Lady Slattern Lounger, who had just sent it home, had so soiled and dog's-eared it, it wa'nt fit for a Christian to read.

LYD. Heigho! Yes, I always know when Lady Slattern has been before me; she has a most observing thumb, and, I believe, cherishes her nails for the convenience of making marginal notes. Well, child, what have you brought me?

Lucy. Oh, here, ma'am ! [Taking Books from under her Cloak, and from her Pockets.] This is "The Man of Feeling," and this "Peregrine Pickle."-Here are "The Tears of Sensibility," and " Humphrey Clinker.

LYD. Hold! here's some one coming-quick, see who it is [Exit Lucy, L.]-Surely I heard my cousin Julia's

voice!

Re-enter Lucy, L.

LUCY. Lud, ma'am ! here is Miss Neville!

LYD. Is it possible!

Enter JULIA L.

LYD. My dearest Julia, how delighted I am!--[They embrace.]-How unexpected was this happiness!

JUL. True, Lydia, and our pleasure is the greater; but what has been the matter? you were denied to ine at first.

LYD. Ah, Julia, I have a thousand things to tell you! but first inform me what has conjured you to Bath ?—Is Sir Anthony here?

JUL. He is; we are arrived within this hour, and I suppose he will be here to wait on Mrs. Malaprop as soon as he is dressed.

LYD. Then before we are interrupted, let me impart to you some of my distress; I know your gentle nature will sympathize with me, though your prudence may condemn me: my letters have informed you of my whole connexion with Beverley; but I have lost him, Julia;-my aunt has discovered our intercourse, by a note she intercepted, and has confined me ever since: Yet would you believe it? she has fallen absolutely in love with a tall Irish baronet, she met one night, since we have been here, at Lady Macshuffle's rout.

JUL. You jest, Lydia.

LYD. No, upon my word.--She really carries on a kind of correspondence with him, under a feigned name though, till she choose to be known to him; but it is a Delia, or a Celia, I assure you.

JUL. Then, surely, she is now more indulgent to her niece?

LYD. Quite the contrary. Since she has discovered her own frailty, she is become ten times more suspicious of mine. Then I must inform you of another plague; that odious Acres is to be in Bath to-day, so that, I protest, I shall be teazed out of all spirits!

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JUL. Come, come, Lydia, hope for the best. Sir Anthoshall use his interest with Mrs. Malaprop.

LYD. But you have not heard the worst. Unfortunately I had quarrelled with my poor Beverley, just before my aunt made the discovery, and I have not seen him since to make it up.

JUL. What was his offence?

LYD. Nothing at all; but I don't know how it was, as often as we had been together, we had never had a quarrel; and, somehow, I was afraid he would never give me opportunity; so, last Thursday, I wrote a letter to myself, to inform myself that Beverley was, at that time, paying his addresses to another woman. I signed it, "Your unknown friend," showed it to Beverley, charged him with his falsehood; put myself in a violent passion, and vow'd I'd never see him more.

JUL. And you let him depart so, and have not seen him since?

LYD. 'Twas the next day my aunt found the matter out; I intended only to have teased him three days and a half, and now I've lost him for ever.

JUL. If he is as deserving and sincere as you have represented him to me, he will never give you up so.-Yet consider, Lydia, you tell me he is but an ensign : and you have thirty thousand pounds!

LYD. But, you know, I lose most of my fortune, if I marry, without my aunt's consent, till of age; and that is what I have determined to do ever since I knew the penalty; nor could I love the man who would wish to wait a day for the alternative.

JUL. Nay this is caprice!

LYD. What, does Julia tax me with caprice? I thought her lover Faulkland had inured her to it.

JUL. I do not love even his faults.

LYD. But you have sent to him, I suppose?

JUL. Not yet, upon my word! nor has he the least idea ot my being in Bath :-Sir Anthony's resolution was so sudden I could not inform him of it.

LYD. Well, Julia, you are your own mistress, though

under the protection of Sir Anthony; yet have you, for this long year, been a slave to the caprice, the whim, the jealousy of this ungrateful Faulkland, who will ever delay assuming the right of a husband, while you suffer him to be equally imperious as a lover.

JUL. Nay, you are wrong entirely. We were contracted before my father's death: that, and some consequent embarrassments, have delayed what I know to be my Faulkland's most ardent wish. He is too generous to trifle on such a point; and for his character, you wrong him there too. No, Lydia, he is too proud, too noble, to be jealous; if he is captious, 'tis without dissembling; if fretful, without rudeness. Unused to the fopperies of love. He is negligent of the little duties expected from a lover; but, being unhacknied in the passion, Lis affection is ardent and sincere; and as it engrosses his whole soul, he expects every look and emotion of his mistress to move in unison with his. Yet, though his pride calls for this full return, his humility makes him undervalue those qualities in him, which would entitle him to it; and not feeling why he should be loved to the degree he wishes, he still suspects that he is not loved enough. This, I must own, has cost me many unhappy hours; but I have learned to think myself his debtor for those imperfections which arise from the ardour of his attachment.

LYD. Well, I cannot blame you for defending him; but. tell me candidly, Julia, had he never saved your life, do you think you should have been attached to him as you are? Believe me, the rude blast that overset your boat was a prosperous gale of love to him.

JUL. Gratitude may have strengthened my attachment to Mr. Faulkland, but I loved him before he had preserved me; yet, surely, that alone were an obligation sufficient

LYD. Obligation! why, a water spaniel would have done as much! Well, I should never think of giving my heart to a man because he could swim!-What's here?

Enter Lucy, in a hurry, L.

Lucy. O, ma'am, here is Sir Anthony Absolute, just come home with your aunt! LYD. They'll not come here :-Lucy, do you

watch.

[Exit Lucy, L.

JUL. Yet I must go; Sir Anthony does not know I am here, and if we meet, he'll detain me, to show me the town. I'll take another opportunity of paying my respects to Mrs. Malaprop, when she shall treat me, as long as she chooses, with her select words, so ingeniously misapplied, without being mispronounced. [Crosses, to R.

Enter LUCY, L.

Lucy. O lud, ma'am ! they are both coming up stairs. LYD. Well, I'll not detain you. Adieu, my dear Julia! I'm sure you are in haste to send to Faulkland. There -through my room you'll find another staircase.

JUL, Adieu!

[Exit, R.

LYD. Here, my dear Lucy, hide these books. Quick, quick. Fling" Peregrine Pickle "under the toiletthrow "Roderick Random " into the closet-put “ The Innocent Adultery "into" The whole Duty of Man ". thrust "Lord Aimworth "under the sofa-cram " Ovid' behind the bolster-there-put "The Man of Feeling into your pocket. Now for them? [Exit LUCY, L.

Enter MRS. MALAPROP and SIR ANTHONY

ABSOLUTE, L.

MRS. M. There, Sir Anthony, there stands the deliberate simpleton, who wants to disgrace her family, and lavish herself on a fellow not worth a shilling.

LYD. Madam, I thought you once

MRS. M. You thought, miss! I don't know any business you have to think at all; thought does not become a young woman. But the point we would request of you is, that you would promise to forget this fellow-to illiterate him, I say, from your memory.